On Thursday 22nd February City Hosts joined the Flame of Friendship launch ceremony in the cathedral ruins, welcoming and making sure those attending were supported before leaving for Southfields School. Luckily the rain held off as 20 Hosts lined the way out of the ruins for the first group, waving flags and cheering them on their way.
Prior to the Tokyo2020 Olympic Games the idea of a relay was driven in partnership by local primary schools including Deputy Head Rebecca Bollands, now of Earlsdon, formerly of Howes Primary School, and local social enterprise EnV as the lead partners of the Coventry Young Ambassador Volunteer programme.
This partnership has seen over 500 primary school children trained by EnV to become Coventry Young Ambassadors leading to thousands of voluntary hours in and out of school including partnering with Coventry Ambassador and City Host volunteers in public events since 2018.
On 21st April 2021 a London1948 Olympic torch was carried between 54 schools linking them in friendship while also highlighting Coventry’s continuing link with Tokyo whose ‘City Cast’ 2020 Olympic volunteers had been trained by EnV.
The Coventry Flame of Friendship torch relay initiative is now back for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This is an exciting partnership between The University of Warwick and Coventry schools in the run up to the Paris 2024 Olympics that will again be supported by EnV and the City Host volunteers.
The torch relay kicked off with a spectacular launch ceremony at Coventry Cathedral, featuring a procession led by Team GB Water Polo player Amelie Perkins, who carried the torch to its first destination, Southfields Primary School. The torch will now make its way to all 62 participating schools, with a grand finale on campus on 8 July 2024.
The torch has been custom made for this event, following a competition in which over 2000 Coventry pupils took part. The winning design, from a Year 7 student at Finham Park School, was manufactured at WMG as a project done by four Rugby College students currently undertaking T Level-related activities with WMG.
Among the guests was David Moorcroft OBE who spoke of how the torch was a symbol of passing on the legacy of Olympic volunteering starting in 2012 with our Coventry Ambassadors and continuing now with the Young Ambassadors and City Hosts. As well as the torch that volunteer legacy of teamwork and friendship is continuing to be passed on through the schools taking part with our London 2012 and Commonwealth Games 2022 presentation batons travelling along the route from school to school.
Amongst the first group setting off for Southfields School were four Young Ambassadors representing their school, the first of 62 Coventry schools to be involved. They were certainly confident about their role, being experienced Ambassadors, and were eager to be part of the event. Their reasoning for being chosen was their attitude. Absolutely! Lots of Ambassador smiles from Abbas, Poppy-Mai, Kearna and Zakariya, they said they enjoy being volunteers and helping others.
City Hosts and Coventry Young Ambassadors.
Find out more by visiting https://warwick.ac.uk/wie/flame_of_friendship/
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