Lighting Up The State Enthusiastic Celebrations Greet Olympic Torch As It Slowly Wends Its Way Through Washington State
Michael Tougher, who risked his life last year to help rescue an injured mountain climber, got his reward Monday when he joined the relay carrying the Olympic flame across the country.
Hundreds of flag-waving people cheered as the torch crossed the Columbia River Bridge from Oregon on the back of a bicycle. After a brief ceremony brimming with patriotism and commercialism, the relay, its police escort and television helicopters resumed their journey, passing a drugstore called Olympic Drugs, bound for an even bigger celebration in Olympia.
“It was fabulous,” Tougher, 39, of Battle Ground, Wash, said after his 2-kilometer run in Oregon. “It was the opportunity of a lifetime. Everyone here is so open and friendly.”
Tougher, pronounced toe-ker, can thank his wife, Dana, for the experience. She nominated him as a “community hero” after last July’s experience at Glacier Peak in Snohomish County.
Tougher was on a mountain climbing trip in the Cascade Mountains when a companion slipped and fell into a 60-foot crevice. Tougher lowered himself into the crevice while other climbers alerted a mountain rescue team. The injured climber was rescued by helicopter.
When the relay ends July 19 at the summer games in Atlanta, some 10,000 people, including “community heroes” and Olympic athletes, will have enjoyed a stint in the spotlight as they carry a 3-1/2-pound torch by foot, bicycle, boat, horseback, wheelchair, plane and train 15,000 miles through 42 states.
The flame, which was lit in Olympia, Greece, began its 84-day cross-country trek on April 27 in Los Angeles. After passing through California and Oregon over the weekend, it entered Washington in surprisingly pleasant and dry Northwest weather.
During the flame’s three-day run through Washington, about 175 people will carry the torch through Olympia, Tacoma, Bremerton, Seattle, Renton and Yakima for a total of about 400 miles.
Celebrations like the one in a downtown Longview park are planned along the way, many of them resembling a July Fourth celebration in Smalltown, USA, with families, flags, school bands, speeches and the usual corporate sponsorship.
Everywhere people turned, soft-drink giant Coca-Cola, which is sponsoring the relay, hawked hats for $20, pins for $6 and an “I saw the flame” license plate for $4, all bearing a prominent Coca-Cola label.
Even the torches are for sale. Each participant can buy a torch for $275.
“It’s sort of hokey,” said Bill Houston, a Department of Transportation worker who stopped to see what the commotion was all about.
But that didn’t detract from the overall enthusiasm.
“It was fantastic. It symbolizes peace, harmony and love,” said Barbi Ammons, who accompanied her 12-year-old daughter’s school class to the event.
“I think this is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done,” said Marion Mefford, a flight attendant who carried the torch on a 1-kilometer leg after the Longview celebration.
“My biggest problem is trying not to set my hair on fire.”
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TORCH’S WASHINGTON SCHEDULE Today: Olympia, Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Bremerton and Seattle. Wednesday: Renton, Black Diamond, Enumclaw, Buckley, Eatonville, LaGrande, Morton, Glenoma, Randle, Packwood, Greenwater, Cliffdell, Naches, Yakima and Kennewick.