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Into the cold: Bubble blowing pastor Ted Goossen is Thompson's unlikely ambassador and YouTube face to the world

Meanwhile 'Today in America - City of Thompson,' the city's $25,000 promotional effort and Thompson Unlimited's 'Thompson Video' remain largely unwatched on YouTube
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Pastor Ted Goossen: After the Reddit boost, Lauren O'Neil, of CBC News community news blogs, picked up the story the last Friday in a piece headlined, "Manitoba couple blows bubbles at -45 C, wins hearts around web." Winnipeg CBC Manitoba weatherman John Sauder has mentioned it. The Chive, an independently owned photo-entertainment website in Austin, Texas, has picked up the story. So has William Goodman at The Huffington Post in a piece headlined "This Couple Blowing Bubbles In The Cold Is An Absolute Overload Of Canadian Cuteness." It's not Goossen and the video's first brush with fame by any means. Last Jan. 24, it was picked up by CNN in Atlanta, as part of a piece about what different people did in the then current cold snap, and mentioned on CTV Winnipeg News as well at the time.

Ted Goossen's March 11, 2009 YouTube video, shot in his back yard on Riverside Drive with his wife, Mary, is called "blowing bubbles at -45C" and is only 2 minutes and 47 seconds long. But that's long enough to have made Ted the unlikely face of Thompson to the world, as the video has gone viral - again.

This time it popped up Dec. 5 on Reddit, the social news and entertainment website where registered users submit content in the form of links or text posts and then vote submissions "up" or "down" to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages, and Ted and Mary were dubbed "the most Canadian couple ever" by the original poster, as the Goossens are seen in the video showing what it's like to blow bubbles, while Ted also ends the clip tossing a cup of water into the air at -45 C, as it quickly freezes into tiny ice crystals coming down partially on his beard and shirt (no coat for "Thompson Tough Ted." Just a fur hat.)

After the Reddit boost, Lauren O'Neil, of CBC News community news blogs, picked up the story last Friday in a piece headlined, "Manitoba couple blows bubbles at -45 C, wins hearts around web." Winnipeg CBC Manitoba weatherman John Sauder also mentioned it. The Chive, an independently owned photo-entertainment website in Austin, Texas, has picked up the story. So has William Goodman at The Huffington Post in a piece headlined "This Couple Blowing Bubbles In The Cold Is An Absolute Overload Of Canadian Cuteness."

United Press International (UPI) picked it up Dec. 8 in a story headlined, "Couple win over Internet with video of them blowing bubbles in winter." The Salt Lake Tribune, owned by Denver-based MediaNews Group, the second largest newspaper company by circulation in the United States, chaired by William Dean Singleton, and whose chief executive officer is John Paton, who got his start as a copy boy at the Toronto Sun in 1977, ran a story by Jim Dalrymple II Saturday headlined, "This is what it looks like when you blow bubbles in sub-zero weather."

It's not Goossen and the video's first brush with fame by any means. Last Jan. 24, it was picked up by Cable News Network (CNN) in Atlanta, as part of a piece about what different people did in the then current cold snap, and mentioned on CTV Winnipeg News as well at the time.

"That's what we do for excitement here in Thompson, Manitoba, at -45!" Ted laughs, as the YouTube video ends. "Thanks, hun, for helping out!" Ted and Mary have been married for 42 1/2 years - since June 26, 1971.

To say Ted Goossen, a 65-year-old Mennonite Brethren, is something of an unlikely celebrity, let alone ambassador to the world for the City of Thompson, is a bit of an understatement.

He's organized the pastoral writing rotation for the Nickel Belt News' "Spiritual Thoughts" column, as well as being a contributor to it, for more than five years now.

"Pastor Ted," as he's known to many of his congregants and friends, has been pastor of the Thompson Christian Centre Fellowship on Thompson Drive since September 2005. Among his varied jobs, he worked as a long-haul truck driver for Renold's Transport in Altona for a couple of years immediately before coming to Thompson, served as associate pastor of Winkler Mennonite Brethren Church from September 1999 to November 2002, and was the full-time camp director of Simonhouse Bible Camp, near Cranberry Portage, from March 1996 to August 1999.

He graduated from Providence College and Theological Seminary in Otterburne in 1975 with a master of divinity degree.

The reach of Goossen's "blowing bubbles at -45C" is staggering. As of mid-afternoon noon Dec. 9, it had gone totally viral, with 517,766 views and 564 comments. For people around the world who have never heard of Thompson, or will never otherwise see it, this is how they are seeing us. But the purpose of making the video was much more modest. Ted has said it was simply as "a fun thing for our kids and grandkids and extended family and friends to show things you can do for fun in cold weather."

Ted said Dec. 7 he'd be happy if "people who like the video make a donation to one of our favourite charities - like Midway Bible Camp or Simonhouse Bible Camp."

There are, of course, other Thompson videos. In fact, the "Thompson Video," released last June 14 by Thompson Unlimited, spends 7 minutes and 40 seconds trying to sell Thompson to the world. As does, "Today in America - City of Thompson," the 4 minute and 44 second YouTube video the City of Thompson spent $25,000 on to have Paul Douglas Scott's United States Media Television Inc. in Coral Springs, Florida have Terry Bradshaw, the 1970s era Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl-winning quarterback, touting Thompson, which was released last June 12, just two days before the Thompson Unlimited video.

What do the numbers look like in terms of bang-for-the buck? As of Dec. 8, "Today in America - City of Thompson," the city's $25,000 promotional effort had garnered 5,503 YouTube views (and two comments) and some additional viewership presumably inserted as a segment into the "Discover Canada" series on Today in America, magazine-style show that airs on a combination of national and regional broadcast networks. Thompson Unlimited's paid for and professionally produced "Thompson Video," which unveiled the "where friends become family" slogan, had received 3,609 YouTube views and no comments at all.

Now, in fairness, it might be pointed out that Goossen's YouTube video has a 4 1/2 -year head start on "Today in America - City of Thompson" and the "Thompson Video."

Maybe they'll catch up.

Maybe.

Oh. And in the unlikely event you haven't seen "blowing bubbles at -45C" you can take a look at it on YouTube here at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ga5D6uwPWU

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