The conclusion of Orangeville’s torch relay celebration on December 28th will be a memorable one.

After two hours of entertainment, four skydivers will come out of the sky, performers who will be spread throughout the area will dance to the song “Celebrate,” and 30 white homing pigeons will be released.

Fred Byers and his sonin law Brian Woolacott of Hillsburgh will release the birds, known as “California Bullets.”

The training for the birds to fly from Orangeville to Hillsburgh began in early December. Mr. Byers, who has had birds for almost 50 years and who sits on the executive of the Canadian Roller Club, has about 200 birds and six different breeds. He has been training the birds to fly to Kitchener, where he plans to retire and where he will do bird releases at weddings in future.

For now, Mr. Byers and Mr. Woolacott tend to their birds, including show pigeons which they enter in competitions in southern Ontario. They often do bird releases at special ceremonies.

They let the birds out every day to go “rambling” for half an hour, familiarizing themselves with the surrounding environment.

“It will be exciting on the day of the Olympic Torch Relay as this is as close to Greece as these birds are going to get,” Mr. Byers said. In the early days of the Olympics in Greece, pigeons were used to relay the results of the Olympic Games back to the contestants’ home towns.