As most of you know, Vancouver was awarded the Grey Cup after Winnipeg had construction delays to update their stadium in time. Vancouver had successfully hosted the Grey Cup in 2011 with the strong management crew I work with and we got to do it all over again.
In 2011, I was a Team Lead in Hospitality and got to be a part of many different events. This time, I was on the Management team and my department was Transportation. I worked with two amazing guys, Brad and Ray, who took care of the ground work while I handled all the administrative and scheduling aspect of it. It was a truly amazing experience. We were armed with a fleet of 28 SUV vehicles from Nissan. I started months before Ray and Brad as I was receiving requests for pickups and drop offs from the VIPs who were allowed to use the vehicles for airport to hotel runs.
From Players, Coaches, Mayors, major sponsors to CFL staff, my team was kept busy. While scheduling my driving/dispatching volunteers, I got to know some amazing people. Some of them have been loyal to Brad and Ray going back to the Molson Indy days and those relationships are still going strong. I was lucky to have all of them on my team. My volunteer family had only expanded.
The logo I used above was created by BC Lion, defensive lineman, Keron Williams.
Although I was the Transportation Manager for the Festival, I did work as a Team Lead at the stadium on game day. Ray and Brad handled everything wonderfully in my absence. One of the items they were pushing at Guest Services was a poster of Geroy Simon. We had lots of them.
My days consisted of getting up at 5am and leaving home at 6am to get downtown for either 7 or 8am. I stayed in the Transpo room with my dispatchers troubleshooting and answering the phones all day. I left for home once the last car was back in the lot and usually got back home around 1:30am. Then I would go through many emails sent to me by the CFL regarding various things. Then I would send out emails to my team regarding things they need to know for the next day. Sometimes I would get to eat before sleeping or at least have a cup of tea. Bedtime was around 2:30-3am, whenever I winded down. After a couple hours of sleep, I was back at it again. Tough schedule, but I made it. I know Ray and Brad did the same. We got to sleep once the festival was done though.
Here are some souvenirs I was able to pick up. These black footballs were being tossed around everywhere. I managed to pick up a few for my toddler nephew.
Another item I was able to get was a toddler hat. I was able to get them signed by three BC Lions players. Adam Bighill signed the underside. My nephew is 3 yrs old now and loves wearing it but not to preschool. He doesn't want it to get stolen. He loves my hat collection from the events I've done so I decided to get started on one of his own.
As the Transportation Manager, the Grey Cup Festival Committee treated us as a part of their group. We received these wonderful Grey Cup Festival duffle bags, pins and black Grey Cup jackets to wear. We were also treated to a nice dinner and raffle by the Operations staff and President of the Festival at Yaletown Brewing in Yaletown for all of our hard work.
Even though the BC Lions were not part of the Grey Cup, our city still managed to host another amazing and successful event and that's because the people I volunteer with are amazing people. The fans alone create the atmosphere and I know that from the emails I received from most of the VIPs after the event, they all had a wonderful time. I hope that everyone else did too! I know I did.
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