Mann To Receive Reproductions of Missing Medals

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C.- It has been more than two years since the  boxing medals won by  Harold  Mann  were stolen from  an  exhibit at Exploration Place in Prince George,  but Harold Mann is about to receive  something special.

The missing medals include the light middle weight  boxing gold medal from the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth  Games in  Perth, and  the  Canadian Amateur  Boxing Champion medals for  1958, 1961  and 1962.    They were on display at Exploration Place when they were stolen  in  May of 2007.  The medals  have not  been  recovered, nor has anyone been charged for their theft.

December 8^th,  there will be a special evening  at Exploration Place to honour Harold Mann and to  give  something back to the  former boxer whose accomplishments brought so  much pride to the community.

Exploration Place has had duplicates of the Commonwealth Games medal cast by  Bond-Boyd, the same company which produces the Order of Canada and military medals.  “They came to us” says   Exploration Place Executive  Director Tracy Calogheros,  “We had  tried to find a company that could  do it but we were  running out of options until they   approached us  and offered to  make the replica.” 

The project could not have been done without the help of  Mary  Stewart.  She and Harold Mann are both members of  the  B.C. Sports  Hall of Fame and had been team mates on that  1962   Commonwealth  Games  Canadian  Team  in  Perth.  She  loaned her  gold medal  in swimming (100m Buttterfly)  from the same Commonwealth  Games  to Bond-Boyd to  make the  accurate form  to cast a new medal for  Harold. 

In addition to the  new medal  for Harold, there will be four  other copies made, which will be distributed to each of the Sports  Hall  of Fame to which Harold has been inducted.  The Prince George Sports Hall of Fame,  B.C.  Sports Hall of Fame,  Canadian Sports Hall of  Fame and the  Canadian Boxing Hall  of Fame.

The Canadian Amateur Boxing Association is also   stepping forward to  present  copies of Harold’s   Amateur Boxing Gold Medals.   Although they  didn’t  have  an  original from the era  to make an exact duplicate, they  are  re-running the gold medals for this year so  Harold’s three Amateur Gold medals  will be presented  as well.

(at left, photos of the original  Commonwealth  Gold Medal stolen from Exploration Place in May  of  2007)

While invitations have been sent out   for the December 8^th  event at Exploration Place,  Calogheros says she hopes anyone who may have been missed  will contact her  “I  hope I have contacted everyone, but I can’t  be certain. If we have missed anyone,  I apologize and   hope they will  contact  us  so they can be  added  to the  guest list.”    

“Harold   once told me that  when he touched those medals, he felt a tingle because of what they meant to him and to the  people of the community” says Calogheros  “I  know these new medals are not the same,  but I hope they will give  him back  some of that feeling, because so many people have come together to bring them  back to  him.”

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us