Regina

Football players have been battling it out for the top honours in the CFL for weeks but there has been more than one contest going on for the Grey Cup.

RCMP officers have quietly been on their own quest for the cup.

“Everybody wants to carry the cup,” said Sgt. Cathy Ford. “We even got emails from B.C. and Alberta, saying they’d like to be part of it too - Saskatchewan boys.”
Ford was on a committee that decided which two officers will present the Grey Cup to the winning team after Sunday’s game.

Green and white is out in full force as the ‘Celebration in Rider Nation’ officially gets underway in Regina.

Thanks to a competition put on by the Grey Cup festival committee, the city is dressed up for the occasion.

"It was an opportunity to be able to paint the town for the CFL and to paint it green and white as well," said Heidi Pearson, who ran the contest.

They may not be playing with the team anymore, but there are a lot of former Saskatchewan Roughrider greats who are getting fired up for Grey Cup.

"This is something that people are going to be remembering for the rest of their lives, something that they're going to talk about for years to come," Don Narcisse said.

Regina may be hosting the "Celebration in Rider Nation," but the borders of Rider Nation extend far beyond the Queen City.

"As long as you can kind of navigate the internet and I guess try and find a way to watch it, and stay up late, you can still be a Rider fan from abroad," said Cole Hawkins, a student from Regina who is currently studying in Europe.

Saskatchewan is known for having an incredible history of volunteerism. It’s part of the reason why the 1995 and 2003 Grey Cups went off so well. Volunteers are often described as the lifeblood of a major event but there is a striking difference between this Grey Cup and those previous events.

The Grey Cup committee did not reach the goal of having 3,500 volunteers sign up. In fact, about 1,100 fewer than hoped put their names down to lend a hand but there is a reason for that.

When CFL fans come marching into Regina for the Grey Cup the Queen City will be ready to do what it always has: bring back the Grey Cup parade, bigger and better than ever.

Not every Grey Cup festival includes a parade; it's a pseudo-tradition that comes and goes depending on the host city. The organizing committee for this year's Grey Cup festivities will be rejuvenating the practice when the big game returns to Regina later this month.