THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER — Olympic officials have begun the mammoth task of recruiting almost as many volunteers as the population of Charlottetown, P.E.I., for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
But if Tuesday’s opening response is any indication of the volunteer interest, finding them isn’t going to be difficult.
John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, said the response has been amazing.
“Since we started in the last four or five hours, we’ve had 700,000 page views. That’s (about) 300,000 more than we’ve ever seen.”
Furlong said they’ve had applications from every province, territory and continent.
“We have 3,000 applications already,” said Donna Wilson just hours after the websites opened allowing volunteer applications.
Wilson, executive vice president of workforce for the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, said they already had volunteers applying from across the country.
VANOC has teamed up with Workopolis to help process the applications with the goal of cementing about 25,000 volunteers.
Pat Sullivan, president of Workopolis, said it’s a huge process, and without comparison.
“I can’t think of anything else like this,” he said. “A company that looks for 25,000 people one time is a very unusual occurrence.”
Organizers are looking for everything from experts in technology and anti-doping to help in finance, food and beverages and ticketing.
“We’re looking for people who are well trained, we’re looking for nice people who are inspired Canadians, who believe in the country, believe in Olympic values,” Furlong said.
“Our job is to make it fun, even thought it’s hard work,” Wilson told reporters on the campus of the University of British Columbia, which organizers believe is a good recruiting ground.
Peter Senften, a 25-year-old a music student, is excited about the Games and said he tried to volunteer the minute he heard Vancouver had won the bid.
But he was also upset that only those 19 and over can apply to be volunteers in this process.
“So you’re saying that an 18-year-old who’s allowed to vote (and) serve in Afghanistan, can’t volunteer for the Olympic Games?” he asked Wilson.
She explained they limited the age because parents would need to be present for the screening process for those under 19, but added there are many other opportunities for youth to take part in the Games.
The process of vetting all those volunteers for security is an equally daunting task.
Wilson said they’ll do telephone screening first and then in the fall, they’ll move to face-to-face interviews and an RCMP security screen.
While Wilson couldn’t say how much it would cost to train and outfit each volunteer, she said it was around several hundreds dollars each.
UBC biochemistry student Eileen Shaw likes the idea of volunteering for the Games, but isn’t sure where she’ll be two years from now when the Olympics begin.
“It’s such a big event. Why wouldn’t you want to be part of it?”
Joshua Song, 20, is in his third year of schooling and hopes to have graduated by then.
“If I did have the time, I think it would be a great thing to do,” Song said. “You don’t get a lot of experiences like this.”
Canadian cross-country skiing Olympian Beckie Scott knows first-hand how important the volunteers are to a successful Games.
“You experience volunteerism from the moment you wake up in the morning with the food-services staff…to the bus driver, to the people working at the course venues and ticketing and even the ones at the metal stand.”
She said some of her most special memories are of the volunteer support in Salt Lake City in 2002.
“I was going down to the start line, for example, I would be going past them and they would say We’re cheering for you Beckie, we’re behind you,”‘ she said, smiling.
“It gives you that kind of boost.”