The first few days as an National Olympic Committee Assistant
My journey began in the fall of 2008 when I offered my volunteer services to a group here in Squamish called CALOC, Callaghan Organizing Committee. This group of active Squamish residents and business people saw the need to make Squamish heard in all the Olympic furor - otherwise we would be nothing more than the drive thru on the way to the Games.
CALOC was instrumental in providing workforce and volunteers while the Callaghan Valley was being converted into the Whistler Olympic Park (WOP). Squamish has a well know force of volunteers who are recognized world wide for the work they do on events like the Test of Metal Mountain bike race and as part of the Weazel Workers grooming the World Cup and Olympic (Salt Lake City) ski runs.
In early 2009, the World Cup Nordic Events were held in the Callaghan Valley, ski jump, biathlon, cross country skiing and the Nordic Combined (ski jump and cross country). Through CALOC I became the assistant to the Chair of the VIP Hosting Committee and then held the position of main host in the VIP lounge for all the events. Loving the social aspect of that role and the opportunity to meet the movers and shakers in that realm of sport I volunteered for the Olympic Games with the aspiration of doing something similar.
As a result of those efforts, I was offered a position as a National Olympic Committee Assistant and would be assigned a country to work with when all my training was finished. And.... what training I was given..... I called it Jill's bootcamp as the head trainer of over 900 of us took no prisoners. It was spelled out loud and clear what the expectations were and how we were to handle all and every situation.
Mandatory that we attend all the sessions, including the venue and driver training we were assigned our countries.
MONACO they said!! Wow, I said!!! A small but nonetheless well recognized group with Prince Albert in the lead!! Last Friday, Feb 5th, Jacques Pastor the 'Chef de Mission' arrived and the athletes, physios, coaches, trainers, etc arrive tomorrow Feb 8th.
Over the weekend, the 4 NOC assistants spent our time with Jacques getting the accommodations in the Athletes Village and in a rented townhouse in Taluswoods ready for the team. Technology, bedding, office equipment, flags, etc all needed to be set up. Storage space needed to be confirmed, vehicles given the right passes, NOC assistants given additional accreditation and proxies to enable us to go and look after every little detail.
The village was abuzz with NOC assistants for other countries doing exactly the same thing as their countries and teams started arriving.
And this is just the start, as the week progresses it will get busier and more stressful as the anticipation builds.
Can't wait!!!
More in to come..... lots to tell you about transportation, security and the amazing people that are bringing these games to fruition. It has been a long time coming and now we can show off our amazing part of the world. Go Canada Go!!!!
