Matthew Caseley of French River, who won Canada Games gold in the hammer throw, carries the P.E.I. flag as he leads the Island team into the UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place Saturday for the closing ceremonies of the 2009 Canada Summer Games. Brian McInnis/Transcontinental Media

It wasn’t over till Smothered in Hugs sang.
But that end-of-show performance by this Prince Edward Island band basically wrapped up the official closing ceremony for the 2009 Canada Games on Saturday afternoon.
The stands at the UPEI Alumni Games Place in Charlottetown were nearly filled as the 2,300-plus athletes who competed in the final week of this two-week long Games marched with pride down the stairs to the track and to their seating places, smack dab in front of the stage.
P.E.I. swimmer Rhea Hurnik, 16, of New Dominion had mixed feelings about the games coming to an end.
“I don’t know. It was like our whole summer and our whole year was building up to this and it’s hard to believe that it actually happened and it’s all over now,” she said.
“It’s sad but it’s really exciting still. It’s hard to believe that it actually happened and that we were part of it.”
The crowd was loud in its cheering but overshadowing even their combined voices was an ebullient bunch of youth with the P.E.I. Dream Dance Team who danced and shouted their cheerleader-like greetings to each and every province and territory with equal gusto as they paraded in.
Rebecca Drummond, 12, of Summerside and Celia Koughan of Stratford, who both play children of Avonlea parts in the musical “Anne and Gilbert,” were two in this young dance crew who were  on the entertainment list to spice things up at the ceremony’s end.
“We’re doing a final number and we’re hoping that everybody in the audience will dance a little part with us,” Rebecca said.
“We taught all the teams to dance so hopefully everyone will join in for the last number. It’s going to be awesome,” added Celia, who is now a big fan of the Canada Games.
“It’s exciting! It’s such a big event and it’s really cool to have it here with all these people.”
A huge crowd of Canada Games volunteers sporting their bright red volunteer jackets was crammed in the stands to take in the event. For most the work was done.  However, Kaye Larkin of Cornwall and Theresa Lambe of Stratford were still on duty in the stands, continuing to provide a volunteer first aid presence for the spectators.
“It was a great run and I hear lots of good comments from people from every province . . . saying the good job that P.E.I. has done for these Games and how they covered the Island,” Larkin said.
“Other places have it in one venue but here they were in Montague and Cardigan and Souris, all over, and people were so friendly to them.”
Michele MacAulay of Stratford, along with her husband, Ron MacAulay, and their niece, Maria Mahar, was there to see her son Greg, who is a golfer, be part of the closing ceremony.
“Yes, we actually saw him and got a picture,” she smiled, glad that her son was part of this moment in the 2009 Canada Games history.
“We’re very, very proud. It’s wonderful.”
P.E.I. was awarded the Jack Pelech Award. The Canada Games Flag Points winner was Ontario and the Centennial Cup went to Quebec.
The entertainment lineup included groups such as local groups Vishten, Smothered in Hugs and Halifax’s Squid.
Former Olympic sprinter Jared Connaughton of New Haven was the first P.E.I. native to win two gold medals at one Canada Games, which he did in 2005 in Regina, Sask.
To emphasis the importance of the Games on an athlete’s career, he told the athletes and the audience of his thoughts after he competed in track and field in London, Ont., in 2001 and finished third last.
“It was an opportunity for me to acknowledge that I had to make a commitment to my sport and four years later in Regina I went from almost last (in 2001) to first in the 100 (metre) and first in the 200 (metre races). So it was a turning point in my life,” he said.
“To me the Games is such an amazing thing and it’s done so much for my community. Only a few years ago this very place (the UPEI Alumni Games Place) was a swamp almost so this has come so far and the legacy of Canada Games isn’t just these two weeks, it’s a legacy that will carry on for future athletes.”