37th Canada Games a Great Success

The Armenian Community of Toronto was all abuzz over the weekend of November 23,24,25 as Homenetmen Toronto played host to the 37th Homenetmen Canada Games. Over 300 athletes took part in seven events over the three days at various venues accross the city. There were visiting teams from Montreal, Cambridge, Washington DC, Providence Rhode Island, Orange County, Pasadena, and London, England. The events included Basketball, Soccer, Ball Hockey, Volleyball, Table Tennis, Chess, and Indoor Track & Field.

Friday’s Baketball games took place at the Homenetmen Gymnasium at the AYC to a packed house of fans and spectators. Members of the visiting teams could not believe the turnout of people that had come out to watch them play and cheer their teams on. "Samo", a basketball player from Providence expressed that this was his 2nd time in Canada and that of all the places he has played around the world, Toronto was his favourite.

A "Victory Celebration" was held on Saturday night at the Armenian Community Centre where all the athletes as well as the community enjoyed a great concert featuring the debut of local talent "Princess" and the guest feature, R-Mean, an Armenian rapper from Los Angeles.  This was R-Mean’s first visit to Canada and he promised to come back as he fell in love with our Armenian Community.

The closing ceremonies took place Sunday afternoon, once again to a standing room only crowd. Guests included, V Revernd Sipan Kechedjian,  Barkev Basmadjian, the President and Benefactor of the games, Homenetmen World Committee member Armen Kidikian as well as former World Committee Members, Hratch Der Sarkissian and Manuel Hallajian. Representatives from the Armenian Community Centre and sister organizations that run out of the centre were also present showing their support.

Events like this show the community that young people are our future and by providing them with these venues we achieve the principles of Homenemen.

Please click here for the official games site and to see all the results and pictures from the games.

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