Prince Harry plays volleyball with school children in Vancouver after performing at the Gray Cup

A day after surprising fans at the top of Canadian soccer in Vancouver, Prince Harry came down to ground level with a game of sitting volleyball with school children in the city.

The Duke of Sussex, who participated in the Gray Cup on Sunday, is in British Columbia to promote the Invictus Games, which he founded for wounded, injured and ill veterans and other service personnel about a decade ago, and which will be held in Vancouver and Whistler in February.

He helped Invictus Games organizers launch a lesson program for kindergarten through grade 12 students on Monday, and made educational resources about the event’s history and purpose available online.

The prince interacted with elementary and high school students at Vancouver’s Seaforth Armoury, played sitting volleyball and studied the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley, for which the games are named, and take part in a drawing and coloring exercise.

Speaking later to the students, military service personnel and athletes, Prince Harry said his interactions with them “had a profound impact” on him regarding the school program’s potential to spread the message of the Games.

“This is where Invictus is starting to go even wider, beyond the Invictus community to schools in Canada and hopefully around the world as well,” he said.

“When you see this program in action today, you can really feel the energy, the enthusiasm and the learning that’s happening in this space. So there’s a lot of excitement.”

The Invictus Games will be held from February 8 to 16, with competitors from 23 countries taking part.

It will be Canada’s second time hosting the event – after Toronto in 2017 – but it will be the first Invictus Games to involve adaptive winter sports such as alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling.

Students at Monday’s event received tickets to the Games’ opening ceremony.

The Prince urged them to spread the word about the event and its role as a platform for the achievements of wounded service members.

“For these individuals, for the challenges they have overcome, to be among team members again … with their flag on their chest or on their arm and come out into a stadium filled with tens of thousands of people cheering them on,” Prince Harry said . “You have to understand what it means to them because it can be a life-changing moment.”

The event was attended by dignitaries including Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler CEO Scott Moore.

Sim told the students that people of all ages should support the games and their message.

“Children, I think you need to know that we get to live the lives we do – we get to play on the playgrounds, we get to go to school – because of the sacrifices of so many people who putting themselves in harm’s way so we can experience the freedoms we have,” Sim said.

“I want you to think about them and later give them a big high-five and a big hug.”

Moore said after the event that the message of the Invictus Games had greater reach among children and young people as Prince Harry spoke directly to them, making the royal’s appearance on Monday crucial to the school program’s launch.

“No one carries this message better than the Duke,” Moore said. “Part of the goal of the Invictus Games is to raise awareness of service and appreciation for service, so the school program that we launched today is part of that.”

On Sunday, the prince made a surprise appearance at the Gray Cup game at BC Place Stadium, waving to the crowd and giving an interview before joining BC Lions owner Amar Doman on the field.