BC Lions Volunteer Wrap-up Party 2011

So today we had our BC Lions volunteer wrap-up party.  This takes place at the Surrey Training Facility every year.  It starts out in the boardroom where we sit and eat pizza and drink our pop and have delicious baked goods and then it carries over to the Lions workout and locker rooms downstairs.  Our tour host for the evening was the former Lineman and Captain turned Director of Community Relations for the club, Jamie Taras.  In the past years when he's given us the tour, it was usually a very short visit with us, but today he stayed and answered alot of our questions.  It was nice to have him there to explain alot of what we see and hear about the team and how it works.

This is the door to the Boardroom where we sit and eat pizza.

Once all the eating was done and Jamie arrived, we headed downstairs for a tour.  We stopped in the weightroom where he talked about how the team practices and their schedules.  He also answered any questions we had about the BC Lions that we were curious about.  He answered them all and he was pretty honest in his answers.  Then we moved on to the Locker Room. This is where we had to answer Jamie's trivia questions about the CFL and BC Lions in order to win a prize.  There were 24 volunteers and only 12 prizes.  He asked 4 volunteers to stand at a time in front of him while he asked a question.  Some were easy multiple answer questions others were hard with no multiple answers at all.  I bombed out on my first two tries (knew the answers but too slow) and got it on my third.  The question I got right was simple. "Who is the starting quarterback in the CFL for the BC Lions in 2011?"  I answered: "Travis Lulay" and he gave me a high-five for being correct.  He tried to psych everyone out by saying it was a "trick question"...lol, whatever.  Anyways, I went to the prize table and picked up a BC Lions Blanket.  We also got a signed shirt by our favorite player and mine was Geroy Simon for the 2nd time.  I'll get Travis Lulay next year. ;)

Here's the blanket and signed shirt.

After the trivia was over I went over to him and asked a question.  I told him that I had gone downtown for the Raise-a-Reader day and wasn't able to find any BC Lions representation anywhere.  Was wondering why there was no one there?  Jamie answered that he was there! They had originally put him outside of Granville station but then Kesler came over and he had tons of people around him so they moved him to another location which wasn't so nice.  He said that he was by the Waterfront Skytrain area...Gastown.  He described it as the "shadier part of downtown"..lol.  I asked him why there was no notice of where the players would be like the Whitecaps had done on facebook and twitter so people could find them.  He answered that it was short notice and they didn't have time.  Oh well....a missed opportunity.

Jamie Taras is a great guy. If you ever get a chance to meet him, you'll agree.  The first time I saw Jamie was shortly after I moved to my new high school.  Him and Lui Passaglia were there to talk about drugs.  To "Say no to Drugs".  That was back in '94.  The year they won the Grey Cup.  I told him about it a couple years ago.  He laughed.  But do say hi to him if you ever see him.  He had to leave shortly after the Locker Room tour was over to go home and tutor his son in math!!  Awwwww..

Here's the pic he took with me.  He wanted to pose if front of his old locker. How sentimental. LOL.

All in all, it was a fun night. We're gearing up for the next home game now...Oct 29th vs. Eskimos.  Should be an awesome night! Hope to see you all out there! I'm dressing up for Halloween at the game. :)