Interview for Kare 11 Newscast

About a week before I left for Seattle, I emailed Eric Perkins from Kare 11 to let him know I was coming to the Opening Ceremony to the Winter Olympics. That same day I received a message from Eric saying he would like to meet up with me to do an interview about my anticipation. Not knowing how this would work out, I responded that Heidi and I would be arriving in Vancouver on Friday morning and our first destination would be "Will Call" to pick up our tickets. I provided my cell phone number but wasn't sure if I would have coverage or not.

20 minutes after we got off the train in downtown Vancouver my cell phone rang and it was Eric. Where are you? We're at Starbuck's on Beadie Street and heading to "Will Call." Would you mind waiting for us? We can be there in 5 minutes. No problem. We'll wait.

Sure enough, in a short amount of time Eric and his camera man, John, showed up. I had never met either of them before, but as soon as they crossed the street and came close to us, Eric gave me a hug and said, This has to be Donna! After introductions, we visited a little and then I noticed a gentleman in Olympic torch clothing approaching. He appeared to have Olympic pins on his clothing. Since trading pins was high on my list, I walked up to him and asked him if he wanted to trade a pin with me. Sure. He asked me if I would like a pin from Quebec City - and what a French accent he had. This whole scenario peaked Eric and John's interest and before I knew it, the camera was running and Eric was asking the man questions. This gentleman had carried the torch for a distance in honor of Terry Fox. He also gave me a Terry Fox pin.

After I got the pin and a photo of the man from Quebec, we headed for "Will Call" which was a few blocks away. Eric and John continued to walk with us and stayed with us throughout the time it took to pick up our tickets and then walked and talked with us following that. All in all, I would say they stayed with us for about an hour.

That night (2/12/10), Kare 11 had about a 2 minute story with me and Heidi. Some of my friends have told me they saw it.