There are only five months before the 55 Plus Winter Games come to town and help will be needed to put on a good show — a great deal of help.
It will be similar to what St. Albert saw last year when the city hosted the Special Olympics Alberta Summer Games when more than 1,000 athletes and coaches from across the province descended on St. Albert for four days. As a major show of community spirit, about 400 citizens stepped up to volunteer in a wide variety of capacities from handing out water bottles and timekeeping to transporting athletes to and from their events.
The main difference is that twice the commitment is required this time around. A volunteer recruitment fair to be held this Saturday has a goal of getting 800 generous people to spare a few hours of their time to make the 55 Plus Winter Games as smooth as freshly pebbled ice on a curling sheet.
Sandra Fenton, chair of the games committee, isn’t that concerned about looking for such a large number of volunteers. After all, this is St. Albert, she said, and volunteers come to the rescue for events like the International Children’s Festival.
“We certainly find that the community is very volunteer-oriented. The citizens here are certainly very giving of their time. We’re pretty excited about this event.”
Included in the targeted number of volunteers is about 75 people designated as ambassadors. These people will act as hosts to give the city a friendly face to the guests.
Fenton said the drive actually started last November during the Community Information and Volunteer Centre’s annual volunteer fair. Even though it was a really early call for volunteers, they still signed up a dozen names. Their presence at public events since then has only helped them spur on even more enthusiastic helpers.
“We’ve certainly got a nice solid base behind us. We still need, of course, many more considering that we’re looking at 800 people. We’re looking at this as an opportunity to do a really big launch of the volunteer drive.”
To help motivate people to start thinking about getting involved, the committee is hosting a toonie pancake breakfast on Saturday. Visitors can play a few simulated events and also learn about the lottery that will be used to assign spots for the torch relay that will launch the games.
The 55 Plus Winter Games take place from Feb. 24 to 27, 2011. There are 14 individual events that will comprise the games, with darts being the newest addition.
