Prince Harry in Vancouver as Invictus Games school program launches online

One time aft astonishing fans astatine the pinnacle of Canadian shot successful Vancouver, Prince Harry got down to crushed level with a crippled of sitting volleyball with schoolchildren successful the city.

The Duke of Sussex, who attended the Grey Cup connected Sunday, is successful British Columbia to beforehand the Invictus Games that helium founded for wounded, injured and sick veterans and different work unit astir a decennary ago, and which volition beryllium held successful Vancouver and Whistler successful February.

He helped Invictus Games organizers motorboat a lessons programme for students from kindergarten to Grade 12 connected Monday, making acquisition resources connected the event’s past and intent disposable online.

The prince interacted with simple and precocious schoolhouse students astatine Vancouver’s Seaforth Armoury, playing sitting volleyball, studying the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley for which the games are named, and taking portion successful a drafting and colouring exercise.

Speaking aboriginal to the students, subject work unit and athletes, Prince Harry said his interactions with them “had a profound impact” connected him, successful narration to the schoolhouse program’s imaginable to dispersed the games’ message.

“This is wherever Invictus starts to spell adjacent wider, extracurricular of the Invictus assemblage into schools successful Canada and hopefully astir the satellite arsenic well,” helium said.

“Seeing this programme contiguous successful action, you tin truly consciousness the energy, the enthusiasm and the learning happening successful this room. So there’s a batch of excitement.”

The Invictus Games volition beryllium held from Feb. 8 to 16, with competitors from 23 countries taking part.

It volition beryllium Canada’s 2nd clip hosting the lawsuit — aft Toronto successful 2017 — but it volition beryllium the archetypal Invictus Games involving wintertime adaptive sports specified arsenic alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling.

Students astatine Monday’s lawsuit received tickets to the Games’ opening ceremony.

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The prince urged them to dispersed the connection astir the lawsuit and its relation arsenic a level for wounded work members’ achievements.

“For these individuals, for the challenges they person overcome, to beryllium amongst squad members again … wearing their emblem connected their thorax oregon connected their arm, coming retired into a stadium afloat of tens of thousands of radical cheering for them,” Prince Harry said. “You request to recognize what that means to them, due to the fact that that tin beryllium a life-altering moment.”

The lawsuit was attended by dignitaries including Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler CEO Scott Moore.

Sim told the students radical of each ages should enactment the games and their message.

“Kids, I deliberation you request to cognize that we get to unrecorded the lives that we bash — we get to play successful the playgrounds, we get to spell to schoolhouse — due to the fact that of the sacrifices of truthful galore radical who enactment themselves successful harm’s mode truthful we tin acquisition the freedoms that we have,” Sim said.

“I privation you to deliberation astir them, and aboriginal connected springiness them a large high-five and a large hug.”

Moore said aft the lawsuit that the connection of the Invictus Games had stronger scope with children and younker erstwhile Prince Harry spoke straight to them, making the royal’s quality connected Monday captious for the schoolhouse program’s launch.

“No 1 carries this connection amended than the duke,” Moore said. “Part of the extremity of the Invictus Games is to summation consciousness for work and gratitude for service, truthful the schoolhouse programme that we launched contiguous is simply a portion of that.”

On Sunday, the prince made a astonishment quality astatine the Grey Cup crippled astatine BC Place Stadium, waving to the assemblage and giving an interrogation earlier joining B.C. Lions proprietor Amar Doman connected the field.