The junior golf and youth tennis tournaments will kick off the 2007 Summer Iowa Games Thursday, with the formal opening of the Games being held Friday at Jack Trice Stadium.

The majority of the Iowa Games’ events take place in the first of two blocks of events between July 12 and July 15. During this time, 40 events, ranging from 5-on-5 basketball to electronic darts, will take place.

The second block of events will take place between July 20 and July 22 and feature events such as flag football, figure skating and billiards.

Cory Kennedy is the event coordinator for the Opening Ceremony and he has a goal for what he wants the Iowa Games to accomplish.

“Our main goal is to promote activity, sports and sportsmanship, [but] it’s also to support amateur athletics in the state of Iowa,” Kennedy said.

Prior to the Opening Ceremonies, Finals Fest will be held at 5 p.m. Friday in Lot B6, north of Jack Trice. The formal Opening Ceremony will be held inside the stadium at 8 p.m.

Kennedy is expecting 1,500 people to attend Finals Fest, and 3,000 for the Opening Ceremony.

“I think any athlete in the Iowa Games should attend Opening Ceremonies,” Kennedy said. “It’s tradition, and it’s just a good way to kick off the largest amateur sporting event in the state of Iowa.”

Finals Fest will provide entertainment from 5 to 7:30 p.m. There will be food and inflatable games. The Des Moines Register, one of the event’s corporate sponsors, will be hosting a singing contest for those 13 and older, the winner of which will sing the national anthem at the 2007 Iowa State Fair.

The crowd will then move inside the stadium for the Opening Ceremonies. Here, John Register, a 2000 Paralympics silver medalist, will speak to the crowd of athletes, coaches and parents.

“The Iowa Sports Foundation Staff had a chance to watch John speak in Colorado Springs,” Kennedy said. “He’s very inspirational and we thought he would fit well with what we wanted out of our event.”

Also at the Opening Ceremonies, Kennedy said, a smaller ceremony will take place with the lighting of the cauldron from the Iowa Games torch.

The torch will be transported by foot from downtown Des Moines, where it will depart with a group of 67 runners at noon. They will carry the torch up U.S. Highway 69 and arrive in Ames by 5 p.m., just in time for Finals Fest. The cauldron will be lit by the torch at the Opening Ceremonies and will be carried by the Iowa Sports Foundation 2006 male and female athletes of the year, Beth Henriksen and Jeff Warrick, both of Ames.

The events will end with a bang – a 20-minute fireworks show.

“We put a lot of effort into our fireworks show – it always pleases the crowd,” Kennedy said.

For more information on the Iowa Games and the Opening Ceremonies, visit www.iowagames.org.