Olympic officials are making
volunteers the focus of the two-year countdown to the Games, which starts
Feb.12.
“What better way that on the
countdown day at the two year milestone to launch what will likely be one of
our biggest activities to engage the public, and that is to volunteer,” said
Renee Smith-Valade, manager of communications for the Vancouver Organizing
Committee for the 2010 Games (VANOC).
As well, there will be “small
spontaneous celebrations” in Vancouver as part of the countdown. The signature
event in the city is a musical celebration at the Orpheum on Feb 12. Tickets
are $59 to $69.
“It is a virtual celebration,
if you will,” she said. “So there will be some small, but very festive
activities here in the city and up in Whistler.”
There will, of course, be
cake in the resort to celebrate, said Maureen Douglas, VANOC’s director of
community relations.
“For us it’s not just marking
the day it is activating a number of key initiatives that go hand and hand with
the Games, like the volunteering and the Cultural Olympiad,” she said.
There will be a stage set up
in Village Square Feb. 12 with performances by SWARM, Hey Ocean, Wil Mimnaugh
and many others. A long lineup of events associated with the Whistler
Celebration 2010 will get underway at the end of January.
The infamous street hockey
tournament will also take place, though its been moved to late February-early
March to allow more locals to take part.
The Cultural Olympiad will
run from Feb.1 to Mar. 21, which will be the last day of the Paralympics in
2010.
Altogether the celebration
will include more than 300 performances and 10 exhibitions.
VANOC said screening of the
volunteer applicants will begin by security forces this fall. In all 25,000
volunteers will be needed.
Already volunteer
organizations, multicultural groups, aboriginal groups, educational
institutions, seniors, the business community and more have been approached as
the search for just the right volunteer heats up.
VANOC is also finalizing the
volunteer web portal that includes information about the Games.
The information came out
following VANOC’s January Board meeting in Vancouver.
The board also heard that
Games sponsorship was now at $691 million, or at 90.5 per cent of the overall
$760 million target.
first version of the
long-awaited transportation plans should be out in the latter part of this
year.
The Board also discussed the
plight of Canada’s female ski jumpers, who will not be competing at the Games
in 2010 under current International Olympic Committee regulations.
Jack Poole, Vanoc’s chairman,
reiterated that the organizing committee could do nothing to alter that fact.
“The IOC have pointed out to
us in a very friendly and polite way that this is not our fight,” he said.
“We have our hands full
preparing for the Games and the responsibility as to which athletes participate
is theirs and theirs alone, so we have no role, no influence, no jurisdiction
whatsoever.
We have been very clear that if the IOC decides to include
this new sport then we would accommodate it.”
>Meanwhile the RCMP Integrated
Security Unit, which will oversee the security for the Games, announced that it
is looking for perimeter intrusion detection services for the venues.
It has also been reported
that the ISU has finalized its new budget for the Games. The original bid
budget of $175 million has long been thought to be too small.
Security costs will be shared
between the federal government and BC.
John Furlong, Vanoc’s CEO,
said he did not know what the new budget was.
