After Grey Cup ended, I started to get excited about my next event. It was the Prince George Canada Winter Games 2015. One of my good friends and former Volunteer Coordinate who I look up to, Christine Nicholls, was working on this wonderful event with her friends Stu Ballantyne and Kalli Quinn. The event ran from February 13 - March 1, 2015.
This was the first time that this trio was working on an event without their usual management crew, being us, and we all wanted to be a part of it. Of course Christine and Stu made it happen. They arranged for a coach line to pick us up in various locations throughout the lower mainland and brought us up to Prince George for two weeks. We stayed with billets and had a great time. Some people went for two weeks and others stayed for the full four week duration of the games. I went for two weeks as I had to get back down in time for my Whitecaps orientation.
Some fellow volunteers and I who have been friends with for years went for the first two weeks. On the way up, we also made some new friends. I stayed with Christine for my duration along with her sister and a couple others. Once we arrived, we were sent to the Canada House for uniform distribution and to get our assignments. We had also arranged for Transportation to come pick us up in the morning. I was sent to the CN Centre to work in an administrative role. I found out shortly after I got there that they have no such role there. So, I hoped back on the Transco vehicle waiting outside and went back to the office to see Christine. She saw me right away and re-assigned me to the Athletes Village. This is where I spent my next two weeks.
We started at 6am and our shifts ended at 12pm everyday. This left us with the rest of the day to explore and enjoy the games. We watched many sports like Wheelchair Basketball, Gymnastics, Ringette and Speed Skating. We managed to get Christine to join us for a couple games with us.
Some of the fun had in the pavilions and offices.
We were also interviewed many times. While walking thru the village past the stage, we were interviewed by the host there. A few hours later, we learned that Jay Janower from Global wanted to do a segment on volunteers who follow Stu and Christine everywhere. My friend, Todd, was also interviewed on the street about the games for a local news station.
We had a blast. We met athletes who won medals, made friends with Transpo drivers and showed our appreciation for their service to us by collecting pins for them too, cheered on a girl from Ontario who played on the wheelchair basketball team and even cheered for her. "Ontari-ari-ari-o, Ontar-ri-o!" We went out for dinner one night and had a blast with our waitress. The menu was "Fresh".
We had a wonderful team at the village as all these people who I came up with, all had the same experience I did and we all ended up volunteering at the Athlete's Village and Hotel. There was a volunteer appreciation party on the Friday night before we left. We enjoyed pizza and partied in the village after listening to speeches and the awesome music.
It was an amazing experience and I'm glad I went. I still keep in touch with my new friends and continue to volunteer with my old friends. The ride home started out early in the morning and was quiet most of the way as we all slept for a couple hours. We stopped and had lunch in Cache Creek before we continued back on the hwy. I was dropped off in the parking lot of the Langley UFO theatre where my brother picked me up. What a trip!
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