BIFC x Canada Day 2026

Wow!

What an incredible day. At our base level Bowen Island FC is a local soccer club, we provide soccer programs, coach young players to the best of our abilities and try to ensure that everybody of all ages has access to soccer on Bowen Island. But today showed what we all already know, BIFC is much, much more than that. We're a key part of the community, a force for good, and we're capable of great things.

Buoyed by a World Cup that has brought fans from around the world to Vancouver, shone a spotlight on what the sport is capable of and shown what Canadian's can do when they team up together we were able to deliver something quite special today as part of Bowen Island's Canada Day celebrations.

Thanks to a small army of volunteers we were able to help young, budding soccer players design and make their own soccer kits, often emblazoned with Canada flags, always created with love. The smiles on the faces of the kids as they took their jerseys away, more often than not putting them on straight away will stay with me (probably longer than some of the glue on the stickers will last).

And not only that we also had a presence on the soccer field as our young coaches ran multiple competitions for kids of all ages. There was a shooting challenge, a competition to see who could chip a ball into some bins and some fun scrimmages. All of this was done the right way, with fun at the heart of everything that happened. A big shout out to Ren Tarik our overall winner, great job!

All of our volunteers should be recognised for what they did today. Without them this doesn't happen, and soccer becomes something that just happens a couple of times a week. The ambition and the desire to deliver more is what makes us great, and it's why Bowen Island, and BIFC will always punch above our weight.

So thank you Rebecca, Tara, Gillian, Andrea and Susan for everything you did so that we could make those kits today. I can't believe how many you managed to get through, and I'm amazed that we pulled this off. Thank you Will, Henry, Justin, Cillian and Amaya for all the help on the field. These young volunteers are a great example of just how great the youth of Bowen are, and why we all have a future we can be excited about. Thanks also Jess, Binny and Niul for helping at the field, and thanks to Oscar our TD for the up front planning and organization before you went away to watch England (eventually) win in Atlanta.

Thanks also to Gillian, Sasha, Ayden, Molly and Lee at Bowen Island Community Recreation, I know when I first presented this idea to you it felt a little far fetched, so thanks for all your help bringing it to life and for having us play a part in your incredible Canada Day celebrations. We also need to offer a massive thank you to the Government of Canada, who helped fund todays event as part of their initiative to build on the success of the World Cup and develop soccer in Canada.

Thank you to Danny and everyone at Macey's Sports in North Vancouver, our kit manufacturer since last year and an incredibly supportive partner. They went above and beyond in supporting us, and we can't thank them enough.

Thank you to everybody who showed up, for your creativity, and especially your patience as the lines got longer and longer. The kids in particular did themselves proud as they patiently waited for their jersey to be made. None of this was easy, so thanks for your understanding and help throughout the day.

And finally, a big, big thank you to Anita, our general manager. She personally pressed over 130 jerseys today with barely a minutes break, I think that must be some kind of record. Anita does so much for our club and was absolutely crucial to todays success. She's one in a million and we couldn't be luckier to have her! (Thanks also to her husband Jeff who was there all day and I'm sure will share some epic photos soon).

So here we are. A brilliant moment when the community came together with sport and creativity at it's heart. This felt like a perfect Bowen Island moment, on a perfect Canada Day, and I'm so happy to have been able to see it all happen.

Best of luck to Canada on Saturday when we take on Morocco, and lets keep dreaming up big ideas...this World Cup might be over in 18 days now, but we have a Women's World Cup in Brazil next June, and our 20th Anniversary in September 2027 to look forward to.

Thanks again everyone!

Andy Gillooley

Bowen Island FC Club President