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Maureen Douglas's Olympic journey

Appointed VANOC's director of community relations eight years ago
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When Olympic organizers hired Maureen Douglas as the director of community relations for Whistler eight years ago, there was no guarantee that the Olympics were even coming to town. Regardless, her job in 2002 was: "to chart a course to have a community understand and engage and believe in the Games."

No small or easy task.

Then Vancouver won and the Olympics and Paralympics were on their way. It was overwhelming, she said, in the sense that the possibilities were endless and the dearth of information in the community was obvious. But if there was anyone that was up to the challenge, it was "Mo," a familiar face in town who had been organizing successful events in Whistler like First Night with her down-to-earth attitude and her seemingly never-ending energy and sense of humour.

Over the past eight years on the job, Douglas has seen a community grapple first-hand with what it means to be a "Host Mountain Community" of the world's biggest sporting event; from the euphoria of the July 2003 announcement that the Olympics would be in Vancouver and Whistler to the tense environmental assessment process as the organizers tried to build multi-million dollar venues in Whistler's backyard. As the Games drew closer so too did the nerves and concerns mount about how the community was going to pull it all off, how it was going to pay for it all, and would it all be worth it in the long run.

She didn't have all of the answers all of the time, and sometimes when she did, they weren't the answers people were looking for. But Douglas asked Whistlerites to "take a leap of faith" with her that they were going to pull it off. And they did.

Though her role grew and evolved over time on this mammoth project, producing events such as the countdown clock unveiling and the mascot launch in Vancouver, Douglas was always Whistler's point-person for the Games. Early this week she packed up the last of her VANOC papers - her job finally done.

She plans to take some time off, decompress, spend some time with her family - "the best thing of all" - and harness her creative energy for whatever lies ahead. She did however take the time to accommodate one last media request, sitting down with Pique 's Alison Taylor to remember and share some of her experiences of what it was like to help bring the Games to Whistler as VANOC's director of communications.

 

Pique: Why did you want to get involved with the 2010 Olympics?

MD: Well, if you come from an event background, and I've been an event producer for virtually my entire career from the time I was 19, it is like being called up to the big leagues.

 

Pique: What was the biggest challenge in the job?

MD: She points to the Game Plan community meeting in summer 2009, seven months before the Games were to begin.

That was when I think people were really concerned. And there was a lot of criticism in the papers... The community was getting nervous and feeling like they didn't know every single last detail about things like transportation. And yet we had strong enough ideas that people were able to figure things out... But their comfort level just wasn't there.

If you're the host of a major event, in your home, a wedding, or a world sporting event, everybody wants to make sure that everything is going to be absolutely perfect.

We were making adjustments every single day to help make the Games as perfect as they could be so even six months out it's hard to relay every last piece of detail that everyone wants at the level they want. So I think the biggest ongoing challenge was maintaining faith. And near the end and probably in that summer of 2009, we needed the community to take a leap of faith with us. It's the last piece that you can't describe that gets all of us to the Olympic Games together. I think the leap of faith in Whistler was for me the night of the Torch Relay.

They (the community) were already there. Whistler was excited and they were excited going into the New Year but the leap of faith - we're here and we're going to deliver this thing so far out of the ballpark - that takes every member of the community, that was the Torch Relay.

The spirit was just off the chart.

 

Pique: What was the hardest message to communicate in the Sea to Sky? Was it transportation?

MD: I think that was probably the hardest one to have people believe in and have a good faith that it would work because we live in a place where we've seen transportation problems and challenges on the Sea to Sky. We don't normally have the kind of bus service that was put into place so I think having people manage running buses that frequently, maybe some thought this is what we were saying but in fact it was going to be different and that everything is going to take a lot longer than they're telling us. And in fact, in the end, it probably took less time than they anticipated.

I think the other one that was a tough one to convey and then to change was when the economic realities were just so difficult that it looked like we were going to not do medals plaza. That was really hard. And yet, we would have still had this celebration plaza and it would have had the concerts but it wouldn't have had the medals and I'm awfully glad the way it turned out. But at that time, that was really hard news for everyone. It's hard to deliver news that you're disappointed in yourself... It took a lot of work to get there but it was exciting when it did happen.

 

Pique: There was ongoing criticism and debate about the Games. How did you stay focused in the wake of some of that negativity?

MD: I have a lot of respect for people who have certain stands on the Olympic Games and have concerns and issues with them and I understand that. I think they're not perfect by any means but I still think they hold enough good in them that they are worth doing. There's very little on the planet that allows us all to come together in peace and to celebrate each nation and the sense of universality that you do not get at almost any other world gathering.

All these countries do is they come together to win medals and some know they won't at all. So they come together to compete and play and become friends and celebrate sports.

 

Pique: Your job evolved and grew over time - what were the best parts to it?

MD: The responsibilities, the scope, the geographic area, the client groups, the files I was responsible for just grew.

The two (files) that were most exciting and just incredible sources of pride and just an honour to work with them was aboriginal participation and the Paralympic Games. So the community outreach, community engagement, general communications, advertising around both of those files were my responsibility. Early on we did these things called community celebrations with each of the Four Host First Nations and VANOC.

We did each of them on each of the reserves and it was quite something. A lot of the regular communities in each of those communities hadn't really thought too much about being involved and when they saw us there with our kids and our spouses and it wasn't a VANOC/suit and tie/shaking their hands. We shared meals and played surprisingly aggressive street hockey - I'm over the injury. It wasn't VANOC versus Tsleil-Waututh. It was 40- year-olds taking on 16-year-olds. It opened up a lot of the Four Host community eyes to: we mean this, we're excited about what's happening and we want this to be a meaningful relationship that does benefit you in such a broad spectrum of ways.

 

Pique: What was the most memorable event?

MD: I think the most memorable event for me still is the Paralympic emblem launch in Whistler. It was the first time I was able to do something on a really grand scale in Whistler. It's my home and it's so fun to share that feeling of what this can mean, that sense of celebration, give the community a little sneak peak of what the Games could be like. The second reason is, in some cases even more important. We worked with Phil Chew and had him ride down the mountain bike park and ride through the audience and come up on stage to deliver the DVD that would launch the emblem... It wasn't until he was in the crowd that there were waves of: oh my god, that guy has one leg. In that moment the realization of this man just boosting in and being fairly extreme, and then this understanding a second later that he had a disability, and then people being in awe of what they'd seen. And when you combine the two.... That to me was people understanding the Paralympic Games and in something that took 90 seconds they understood that the Paralympic Games are great.

 

Pique: What was the hardest moment on the job?

MD: The first day of the Games. Yeah. That moment of: this cannot be happening, not now, this cannot be happening.

(Douglas cannot hide the raw emotion of that moment as she recalls the morning of Feb. 12 when Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili lost his life sliding down the Whistler Sliding Centre on a training run.)

That day you go into autopilot mode. There were moments where you'd be in tears. It was almost unconceivable. That's the strange thing that helps. It's not so much denial as this is what we have to do now. And we have a number of things to address and we have to understand what's happened. And we have people to take care of who witnessed a horrifying accident and you just start doing the things you're supposed to do, that we need to do.... This whole team of people did extraordinary things on that track and they made sure that all those Olympians who had come for the same reason as Nodar were able to compete.

It was a difficult weight to carry and yet we had to honour him, we had to honour his purpose for having come to Vancouver and Whistler and in order to do that we had to make sure everybody on the team understood it was OK to reclaim the joy, to laugh, to have fun, to enjoy seeing all these other people celebrate, to see the costumes and the flags and the personalities take to the streets of Whistler. I think that was just amazing.

 

Pique: Did the Games surpass you're expectations?

MD: I was standing in Village Square on the final day of the Olympic Games. Going from the first day to that day was such a profound leap of experience. People were so happy. We couldn't have written the last page to that book any better... It happened and it was all real and Canada's hockey darlings scored the winning goal in overtime.

And then the show with Blue Rodeo, the sense of community I felt was amazing and I stood there knowing I've been able to be a part of so many big events that have happened in that square and contribute to Whistler's history, it was pretty overwhelming. It was a really emotional day but it was all happy emotion. And I think the other thought I had was: just wait folks because most of you haven't been through a Paralympic Games. The Olympic Games are great but the Paralympic Games take that pure joy of sport to a whole other level....

Somebody said something to me at the end of the Olympic Games that I think rang true to the Paralympic Games and I felt very honoured that he said it: He said, "I think I've been to almost every public meeting you've ever gone to and I've seen how hard it's been at times and I've seen how people didn't necessarily believe what you were saying, but I took note of the conviction you had and now that I've come through it I can honestly say you told us the truth, everything you talked about has come true."

Well, then I've done my job. It's the only way I knew how to do it.