Day 74, 75, and 76 Oshawa to Toronto to University of Toronto

An early start  to the biggest day of the relay so far. Kayla and I had to be up at 4:30 am in Toronto to meet this medal bearer group in Oshawa at 6:30. Still dark outside, but it didn't curb their enthusiasm

Start of day and our first medal bearer started at the city hall

Blue skies again as we head for our next medal bearer group in Toronto. Forecast high 12 celsius

We had an hour to kill, so Kayla insisted that we go into Winners to do some shopping!

The patriotism in me.

This was going to be interesting. Our medal bearer meeting point was at this McDonalds in Toronto. The last time I had a meeting inside a McDonalds, it was very distracting to our group, and very loud.

I was right, we ended up moving the meeting outside, good thing it was sunny. The road noise was a bit of problem, but we soldiered on. Included in our group today was John Betts the president of McDonalds Canada

Rick Hansen was on hand to day to speak to the crowd. Ronald McDonald graced us with his presence as well.

I guess we will save one spot for Paul Tracy, well known Canadian race car driver

There he is pulling up in a new Honda (another sponsor) He was officially Medal Bearer number 37, and carried the medal into the restaurant

Looks like a fairly intense interview with Ronald. There was quite a media scrum on this one.

After we finished with our second group we headed back towards our hotel to get ready for the big end of day celebration at Yonge-Dundas square in Toronto

Hard to believe this is supposed to be the biggest hotel in Canada

I parked the bus for the day, it was a short walk from the hotel to the squrare

The panorama of Yonge-Dundas squarre

They had a lot of talent at our end of day celebration including these special needs kids, who sang a couple of songs for the crowd

The human corridor was set up to usher in the End of Day medal bearer, Tracey Ferguson, and Rick Hansen. Tracey is a 3 time gold medalist with Team Canada's paralympic basketball team. She also wheeled with rick when she was 12 years old when he came through Toronto on his original man in motion tour 25 years ago.

Danielle came in from head office, she is part of the design team that created our merchandise that we have for sale at our end of day sites. All monies raised goes to the foundation.

Better chance of seeing Rick on the jumbotron

Rick inspires once again.

Small world again. Ran into Ben who also worked with me on the Olympic Torch Relay

Evening entertainment included Shawn Desman, a big pop r&b star. (although I will admit I had no idea who he was, but a lot of girls were screaming up at the front of the stage)

After the end of day celebration the crowds took awhile to disperse, it took us a lot longer to get out of there, a lot of us stick around and help tear down the displays.

While I wait might as well check out the weather on the big screen. Looks good for the next 4 days!

Day 75. Our first medal bearer group meeting was actually at our hotel. It was in a room on the 27th floor. I could see our vehicles down below on the street.

First medal bearer of the day started where we finished the night before: Yonge-Dundas square

Medal Bearer #7 Junior Lin with his family . They are wearing Rick Hansen relay toques they received volunteering with Variety Village in Toronto. They helped at end of day ceremonies the previous night as well. Here is Junior's story

Although I am only 13½ years old, I have always enjoyed volunteering my spare time with many worthy charitable groups because I truly

believe that we should all do what we can to make our community a better place. 13 things that I have done to benefit others include: 1.

assisting with the Habitat for Humanity Gingerbread Build 2. cleaning up after the H.O.P.E. Charity Volleyball Tournament 3. distributing t-shirts

at the Prostate Cancer Canada Father's Day Run 4. giving gift bags at the Alzheimer Society of Toronto Walk for Memories 5. looking after kids

at the Rick Hansen Wheels in Motion event 6. picking up garbage during the Great Shoreline Cleanup 7. preparing breakfast at the Parkinson's

Society of Canada SuperWalk 8. promoting sales for the Second Harvest Turkey Drive 9. reporting the climb times for the World Wildlife Fund

CN Tower Stair Climb 10. selling raffle tickets at the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Toronto Bowling Tournament 11. serving hot dogs at the

Variety Village Charity Open House 12. signing in families at the Easter Seals Society Regatta 13. soliciting donations at the Epilepsy Toronto

Buskerfest I hope that through these stories, I have led by example, have made a difference in other people's lives and have been a positive

person. It would be a true honour to participate in the Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Relay and I wish that my dream to be a part of this can

come true! Thank you very much!

Notes Junior is 13-years-old and has always enjoyed volunteering in his spare time. Thirteen ways he has given back, one for each year of his age, are

assisting with the Habitat for Humanity Gingerbread Build, cleaning up after the H.O.P.E. Charity Volleyball Tournament, distributing t-shirts at

the Prostate Cancer Canada Father's Day Run, distributing gift bags at the Alzheimer Society of Toronto Walk for Memories, looking after kids at

the Rick Hansen Wheels in Motion event, picking up garbage during the Great Shoreline Cleanup, helping prepare breakfast at the Parkinson's

Society of Canada SuperWalk, promoting sales for the Second Harvest Turkey Drive, reporting the climb times for the World Wildlife Fund CN

Tower Stair Climb, selling raffle tickets at the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Toronto Bowling Tournament, serving hot dogs at the Variety

Village Charity Open House, signing in families at the Easter Seals Society Regatta and soliciting donations at the Epilepsy Toronto Buskerfest.

Our next group met at the hotel again, then it was off to our starting point................

The CN Tower

This group was very special. 4 of our medal bearers were in wheel chairs, two were students, local volunteers, one person with diabetes, and we had sponsor invitees. Plus we had Lloyd Robertson (center) one of the most well known T.V. news anchors (CTV) in Canada, with over 5 decades of reporting. It was an honor to have him in our group. Wth him in this picture is Deena, who is in charge of our participant operations team. (medal bearers) With her and Lloyd is George, Deena's dad. We all have a chance to nominate one deserving person, Deena chose her dad. We had a last minute cancellation, so it worked out that Deena had a chace to run with her father. Also in our group was Michael Lansberg, a TSN sports network personality and host of a sports show called "Off the Record"

Stuck in traffic. No wonder, the relay is going by.

We skipped end of day, because a bunch of drivers had to take the honda vehicles out to Honda Canada headquarters in Markham, Ontario for snow tires

Day 76 was another special day 4 me. It was a non-relay day, and the first few hours were spent taking the busses to fountain tire in Vaughn, Ontario, then picking up the hondas in Markham, and bringing them back to the hotel.

My job is done, back to Toronto and the hotel

Time to get out of Dodge, (Toronto). Here I am on the airport bus taking me to Lester B. Pearson airport for a much needed 7 day break.

Farewell Lake Ontario

Farewell Toronto

Farewell Air Canada center, home of the Toronto Maple Leafs (never got to see a game there, oh well next time)

Farewell CN tower

At the airport

Last glimpse of T O

Okay, it took me10 hours to get to Penticton, and the only one to pose for a picture was Muddy the dog. My kids refused to have their picture taken, probably because they both showed up in their jammies! I will continue on the relay in Niagra Falls in 7 days, til then ?????????????????