Two Belleville residents will take part in Pan Am Torch Relay

April 9, 2015 at 9:54 am

BELLEVILLE – A former mayoral candidate and a past-president of the Belleville and District Chamber of Commerce have been chosen to represent Belleville during the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games Torch Relay when it comes in Belleville on July 3.

Bill Saunders, chief executive officer of the chamber of commerce, said that each of 130 celebration communities throughout North, Central and South America, of which Belleville is one, are offered an opportunity to nominate one person to represent the city and carry the torch.

The torchbearer was chosen through a contest that started last fall, and quite a few people put their names forward, Saunders said. The names were vetted by a committee of 10 people representing the city, the chamber, various city departments and volunteer organizations. The committee chose Kenzo Dozono, a mayoral candidate in last fall’s municipal election.

Dozono, president of Shotokan Karate-Do International Federation of Canada, has been teaching karate in Belleville since 1969.

“It is an honour for me, and I hope my past and present students are happy to hear that. I hope they are proud of me. And this honour came from my students and not from me,” Dozono told QNet News.

There are currently 60 students at Dozono’s SKI Belleville Karate School, but over the years thousands and thousands of students have been associated with it, he said.

“I have so many wonderful students – international champions, Canadian champions. My teaching is not only about the sports but about dedication, passion and level of life. I hope they will succeed (in) their life – that’s our ultimate goal,” he said.

Fred Deacon will be the second person to represent Belleville in the Torch Relay. Deacon describes himself as the oldest past-president in the history of the Belleville chamber – he was president 49 years ago.

“I think they’re just honouring me for the past service, and I really appreciate this,” he said.

As a student at the University of Western Ontario, Deacon played football and was a wrestling competitor. After he came back to his native Belleville, he continued his sports interest through curling. He has always had an interest in sports, he said, and is delighted to be a torchbearer for the Pan Am Games:

Normally, only one person per city is chosen to carry the torch. But one of the major sponsors for the Toronto Pan Am Games and the torch run, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., contacted the Belleville chamber of commerce offering it the opportunity to name a second person, representing the chamber.

“[They] asked if we would be interested in putting a name of someone who will be representing the chamber and the OLG. So we looked at our past records and determined that Fred Deacon, being a longtime resident and businessperson, and longtime past president of the chamber, would be an appropriate one, ” Saunders said.

Saunders said people chosen to be torchbearers should have shown an interest in sports and in their communities: