Sun shines bright on Swift Current Canada Day celebrations
It was a rare sunny day on July 1 as Swift Current residents gathered in Memorial Park for the local Canada Day Celebrations.
Recent rain left much of the park in soggy conditions, but that didn’t keep the park from filling up with revelers who enjoyed hot dogs and cake after observing the honour guard and the raising of the Canadian flag.
This year’s flag raising was conducted by Luis Cabrales and Claudia Muñoz, who came to Canada from Colombia in 1999, with a brief stop over in the United States. Their three children were also on hand.
“We are proud to be Canadian,” Cabrales said after the ceremony. “We loved Swift Current since the start and we never moved away.”
That love for Swift Current extends to Cabrales’ children, who originally left to pursue work else where, but eventually returned home.
“That shows that we like it here,” Cabrales said.
After the flag raising, accompanied by the Shriners’ Band playing “O Canada,” Mayor Jerrod Schafer and Icasiana de Gala of the Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre gave quick speeches in honour of the day.
“For so many of us, we have an overwhelming sense of pride for this coun- try,” Schafer said. “We see our Olympic athletes doing well at the Olympic Games, we see our tennis athletes doing so well at Wimbledon, and it brings out an overwhelming sense of pride in all of us.”
Schafer also told a story about a newcomer who was so proud of Swift Current he’d gotten a tattoo in honour of the city, and took time to acknowledge Swift Current’s volunteers, which made the city, and a Canada, a great place to live.
“Thanks to the volunteers for a great event and I hope we really do a great job of celebrating this great county,” he said. “Happy Canada Day.”