Lindsay Bosch wouldn’t normally like waking up at 4:30 am, but on Jan. 13, she didn’t mind at all.

The Lakeland College student was the day’s first Olympic Torch Relay torchbearer, carrying the flame near E.S. Laird School in Lloydminster. She lives in Maidstone, Sask., and had to be in Lloydminster at 5:45 am, half an hour before the relay started.

“I’ve always wanted to take part in the Olympics. The torch relay was my participation and it was incredible. I can’t think of anything else that I’ve done that was as exciting as carrying the Olympic Torch,” says Bosch, a student in the professional accounting program and financial officer on the Students’ Association at the Lloydminster campus.

Family and friends lined the route to cheer for Bosch, but she didn’t hear anything. “I was focused on the road and on carrying the torch – it’s heavier than it looks,” she says.

Bosch applied to become a torchbearer through Coca-Cola’s SOGO Active program, which is an initiative executed by ParticipACTION to get teenagers active. Every time she logged onto the website to record her activities, her name was entered into a draw to become a torchbearer. She learned last September that she was a “potential” torchbearer and in December received official confirmation and her Olympic Torch Relay apparel including a wind jacket and pants, toque and the popular red mitts.

Bosch didn’t plan on buying the $400 Olympic Torch, but her boyfriend Shae and his family surprised her by paying for the torch.

Now Bosch has turned her attention to winning another prize – tickets to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. “I’m entering a lot of contests. I think it would be cool to see the Olympics in person,” she says.