June 25 - Torch relay continues through four York Region communities on Day 26

Torch visits Richmond Hill, Aurora, King, Newmarket

Yorkregion.com
June 25, 2015

The Toronto 2015 Pan Am Torch Relay continues through four York Region communities on day 26.

The day will begin at the Dr. Bette Stephenson Centre for Learning, located on Regatta Avenue in Richmond Hill, just after 11:30 a.m.

The relay will head south on Yonge Street, east on Wellington Street and north along Industrial Parkway North to Aurora’s celebration site at Lambert Wilson Park, where the torch is expected to arrive around 1 p.m., carried by torchbearer Bruce Stafford.

“I’m truly honoured and excited to have been selected,” the longtime resident, volunteer coach and Aurora Sports Hall of Fame inductee said.

The celebration will begin at 11:30 a.m. and include official greetings, a meet and greet with former Pan Am athletes, live entertainment, lighting of the torch and a free community barbeque, which will wrap up around 2 p.m. More activities will be held at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex and Aurora Cultural Centre from 2 to 5 p.m.

From Aurora, the flame will be carried through King City, with Nobleton’s Peggy Belcher, the 2014 Citizen of the Year, and Alessandra Benazzi, 17, the 2014 Youth Award of Merit recipient, as two of the torchbearers.

Entering from 16th Sideroad West, the relay will travel to Dufferin Street, south onto King Road West and make a stop at King Street Public School, where there will be a sports-themed ceremony from noon until 4:30 p.m. including a barbecue, birds of prey show, book sale and speech by the Mayor.

The torch will then depart King Township, heading west on King Road, south on Keele Street, east on King-Vaughan Line and north on Dufferin Street to King Road then west to Bathurst Street.

It will visit Newmarket as well, beginning at the York Regional Police Association’s Sport Facility on Stonehaven Avenue, from where it will travel west to Bayview Avenue, north past Mulock Drive and onto Prospect Street. It will head west on Queen Street and south on Main Street before reaching Water Street and heading into the celebration site.

Newmarket’s Donald Bond will carry the flame into Riverwalk Commons via the Tom Taylor Trail.