A morning of fresh new snow on the first day of Pacific Summer Time. Day two: (March 14) assignment to Entry Team -- I was given the dangerous power of the bullhorn to greet and direct spectators to the proper entry booth and facilitate egress later in the day.
With a less-than-anticipated turnout, it ended up being that only 400 or so spectators showed up to catch the 10 am event – the men’s cross country sitting (15 km) and the following women’s 10k medal event at noon.
So it was easy to come up with personalized things to say to welcome the guests to Whistler Paralympic Park: “That’s right, you made it, your clocks are correct, welcome to the competition.”
“Beach volleyball has been closed (as I was sitting in an elevated beach chair) but fortunately VANOC has agreed to substitute cross-country skiing instead.”
As the spectators approached it was fun to gauge how excited they were for the competition – generally if they responded to my “Good morning” or “Bienvenue” – I would continue with an instigative comment, or perhaps a joke (not my own but from the Workforce Newsletter) “Two muffins are in the oven. One says to the other, “man it’s hot in here.” The other one replies: “Oh no, it’s a talking muffin!”
Or maybe Paralympic Cross-Country Skiing Trivia: The year of the first competition? 1976 … location: Örnsköldsvik, SWE. (Nobody knew that, nor could I pronounce it correctly).
Day three, upgraded to Team Leader for Cross Sport Area 10 – back to my location of Day 1 but this time I was given a series of Hosts to manage and be the first line in the chain of command to resolve issues. Nothing major, thankfully – only one volunteer’s unfamiliarity with radio communication and some issues beyond my level of control for the amount of workforce in each area, making breaks and lunch problematic for other Team Leaders but nothing of issue for me.
I introduced myself to Minnesota’s Kelly Underkofler and congratulated her on the race – she said she was pleased as the 15 km event really isn’t her strength but was happy nonetheless with an eighth-place finish.
In-house announcer Chad Salmela and opposite Christophe Sevessand (French) talked with me about their upcoming powder day and telemark skiing they’ll be doing up on Whistler today. About the time this goes up, they’ll be finishing their last run.
Day four is rejuvenation and writing.
Day five and six are most likely coming as another grouped set of writing.
1 comments:
I can totally see you with the bullhorn!
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