Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Do you want to tell the world why Chicago is the best place to hold the 2016 Summer Olympics? Well, now you'll have the chance.

Patrick G. Ryan, chairman and CEO of Chicago 2016, invited all Chicagoans to help tell the world "Why Chicago" is the best place to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

Launched Wednesday, the new online channel will feature stories about Chicago told through the eyes of its people—giving Chicagoans new opportunities to take a leading role in bringing the Games to Chicago.

"As a city renowned for our passion, civic pride, love of sports and great sense of humor we know that no one can tell our story better than our own people," said Chicago 2016 Chairman and CEO Patrick G. Ryan. "We are asking all of those who believe in bringing the world to Chicago for the 2016 Olympic Games to tell their own story of "Why Chicago" by creating videos to be shared with the world."

Supporters of bringing the Olympic Games to Chicago in 2016 are being invited to the newly unveiled Chicago 2016 Channel (accessible via the Chicago 2016 Web site (www.Chicago2016.org)) to post their own videos about "Why Chicago" is the best city as well as give the world a little taste of what Chicago can bring to the Games. The best videos, as chosen by the public, will be highlighted for special recognition.

"Chicago 2016 is truly a community-wide effort and nothing will speak louder to the world than passionate Chicagoans telling their own Chicago 2016 story," Ryan said. "Through the Chicago 2016 Channel, the people of Chicago are inviting the world to our city in 2016. We believe that no one can tell the Chicago story more authentically and persuasively than our people."

Chicagoans are encouraged to visit the online channel regularly to check out their favorite "Why Chicago" videos and share their stories with one another and the world.

Fourteen-year-old Nayati Johnson is just a high school freshmen at Collins Academy on the West Side, but he's already going for the gold as an aspiring video producer for Chicago Public school-based Free Spirit Media.

"If you put your heart to doin' something like this or other things you can come out and make a difference," Johnson said.

Click here for a view of the video Johnson helped producer about what the Olympics would mean to Chicagoans.

The students working out of North Lawndale College Prep were among the first to respond to the video challenge posted Wednesday on the Chicago 2016 Web site.

Chicago 2016 seeded the Web site with several videos produced even before Ryan asked for them. Now Ryan's committee is hoping the voices of the people in Chicago, among them the inner city students taught by Jeff McCarter, will be heard by Olympic voters around the world.

"The students of Free Spirit Media can really take the Olympic message, the Olympic ideals and bring them to life because these are ideals of hope," McCarter said.

While there is more to come, the Chicago 2016 Channel will also be home to fun videos created by a cross-section of rising stars from the Chicago improv community. Participants, including performers, songwriters, artists, or anyone with a video camera or web cam, are encouraged to make their videos fun, unique and loaded with Chicago flavor. 

Chicago's Olympic hopes have gotten a boost in Beijing, according to Ryan, as International Olympic Committee voters saw pictures of the millions who attended the recent Taste of Chicago, and pictured similar crowds at proposed celebration sites for 2016.

But IOC members point to crucial meetings with all the candidate cities in Switzerland next summer, and the final presentation in Denmark next fall, as being more decisive in the final standings.

For more information, visit www.Chicago2016.org

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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