Volunteering: Feb. 10 - The First Day

Countdown to Start of Vancouver Games: 1 day; 19 hours; 32 minutes

It was 5:30 AM on Wednesday, February 10, 2010. It was my first day volunteering as a press assistant. And I had to be out the door by 6:10 AM in order to catch the 6:45 AM workforce transport bus for an 8:00 AM shift at Whistler Olympic Park.

So I hit the snooze button on my cell phone, which was doubling as my alarm clock that day and slept an extra 15 minutes.

Getting dressed in my new uniform was a lot more work then I expected. First there's the underlayer which I put on a t-shirt and my athletic pants. Then there's the patterned cotton shirt they supplied us with, followed by my fleece black vest that I got from my aunt and uncle for Christmas. I then pull on the fleece blue vest. Then finally, it's the workpants and the jacket and toque. The accreditation goes atop all of that as that is how I get free transportation in Whistler.

Nevermind having to pull up the legs of the outdoor pants in order to zip on my boots.

Though it was very early that morning, a lot of "blue jackets" were out and about that morning. Many, like I, had to be at Whistler Olympic Park by 8:00 AM and were catching the 45 minute transit bus. Others had other places to go, from the Athlete's Village, to the Sliding Centre where luge and bobsledding will take place. There's also the Alpine Skiing facility that is not a part of WOP.

The guy I happened to get a seat beside was named Dave (I think. I'm awful with names) from Peterbourough, who was nice enough to share his experiences with me. A doctorate in evironmental sciences and a outdoor equipment business owner, he is one of the machine operators at the cross country event in charge of making sure the field of play is maintained at a certain performance standard. He got the job because he had experience with the machines as he is a volunteer at his own ski resort in Ontario, though he tells me the equipment he uses at the actual venue is much more advanced than the one he learned on.

Going someplace new is always a bit harrowing for me. And often times, I charge ahead without ensuring that I did the right thing. Such was the case on my first day. After clearing the initial screening phase, I asked someone where I needed to go to get to the Media Venus. They directed me to a transport bus, which I got onto that led me to the Ski Jump facilities. Asking another individual, they were able to direct me to the Media Venue tent, where I met the first of my minimum 5 supervisors.

She informed me that in my haste to get to the venue tent, or else in my ignorance, I forgot to perform a workplace check-in to get a volunteer shift card and a small de-briefing. And so, down the hill I went again.

Workplace check-in at the WOP. They know what you did last week

Much of my volunteering that day was an orientation by fire for me. Luckily, it wasn't terribly busy. While the ski jumping venue was opening for the first time for training, whereas the cross country ski athletes have been training on the field already, most media personnel did not report in to do coverage. The weather was largely unfavourable however, and so most likely figured they would catch them on a better training date.

I eventually made my way working out the cross-country skiing venue with fellow press assistant volunteer Lisa. She was a cross-country skiing enthusiast and was excited to be on the course watching the elite athletes. I, while appreciative of the athletic strength of the skiers, the style was largely lost on me as I'm largely unfamiliar with the sport. But apparently, so were many members of the media.

But the day wasn't busy. Eventually, we all found ourselves at the media tent close to noon discussing the dress rehersal of the Opening Ceremonies that all the volunteers were invited to. However, I was working until 5:00 PM that day, and as the ceremonies began at 5, I had largely thought it impossible to attend the event. A number of us in fact, were in the same boat.

But it wasn't busy. And our workplace supervisor, Nathalie (who does indeed have her foot behind her head in this picture), recognized that. In minutes, she was contacting every supervisor that she could at the venue to see if we could be released early, at 2 PM, to make our way into Vancouver to go watch those Opening Ceremonies! Suddenly, we began arranging travel accomodations, as the late ending of the event meant it would be extremely difficult to make our way back to Whistler as it was not going to be provided to us.

And then, it was settled. And we were off! To Vancouver, to watch the dress rehersal of the Vancouver 2010 Opening Cermonies.

To Nathalie, who practically moved heaven and earth to give us this once in a lifetime chance to watch these ceremonies when we thought we'd miss it, I owe you one very tall beer. Thank you so much.