The organizers of the 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games in Estevan have started their quest to find the volunteers to make the event happen.
A volunteer launch barbecue was held on Tuesday at the Estevan Leisure Centre’s forecourt. People who are interested could drop by to learn more about the volunteer opportunities available for the multi-sport event, which will run from July 24 to 30 next year.
“We do have some already, and that’s been a great help,” volunteer committee chair Sheila Guenther told the Mercury. “We have some different activities that we’ll be doing leading up to the Games, and then, of course, we’ll need a lot of volunteers.”
The committee also launched their registration website at the event.
They already have about 200 committed volunteers. Some of them are involved with the steering committee or one of the sub-committees, but there are others who don’t have an affiliation with the event.
Now that the registration website has been launched, Guenther said volunteers can go online and indicate their areas of interest.
The Summer Games committee expects they will need about 1,500 volunteers over the course of the competitions.
“We’re going to be out in the public at different public events, encouraging people to register and sign up as volunteers,” said Guenther. “We’ll have information for them to do that.”
Among the coming events the committee will attend is the city-wide registration on Thursday evening.
The committee needs volunteers in many different areas. Prior to the games, they will require people to help out with administration and finance, access control, venue set-up, and marketing and promotions.
Once the games begin, they will continue to need volunteers with access control and marketing and promotions, and they will also require assistance in athlete services, ceremonies and protocol, food services, information technology, logistics, medical services, sporting events, working at venues and volunteer services.
People will also be needed to help with take-down at the athletes’ village and venues once the games are finished.
Guenther said volunteers aren’t required to commit to a specific job or date just yet. The committee recognizes people aren’t certain about their schedules for next summer, but they can register now, and select their availability later.
People who want to register as volunteers can visit http://skg2016.gems.pro/ and follow the directions on the website.
