Life in Sea to Sky Country
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My First Day of Olympic Work
Jan 17th
Today was my first volunteer shift at the Whistler Volunteer Centre, as an Accreditation Operator. What is an Accreditation Operator, you say? More on that later.
I was a little nervous, like the first day at a new job. Especially since I had forgotten how to use the Accreditation System on which I was trained over 2 months ago! Not to worry, as everyone was in the same boat. Fortunately, it was also a slow day as the Whistler office had just opened this past week.
Portion of Accreditation Card
So, back to the Accreditation question. Accreditation is the process that identifies and registers all persons involved in the staging of the Games, e.g. athletes, officials, media, guests, staff and volunteers.An accreditation card is reserved for persons performing a role or function necessary in the staging of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The accreditation process establishes a person’s eligibility to perform a role at the Games and the access entitlements they need to fulfill their role. Once established, this information is displayed on an accreditation card (see sample at left), together with personal information, such as first and last name, function and organization, and access privileges.
Just to give you an idea of the numbers involved in this process, VANOC is expecting to accredit approximately 85,000 people for the Olympic Winter Games, and 20,000 for the Paralympic Winter Games!
X-Country Skiing & My Accreditation
Jan 15th
One of the legacies left by the Games will be the excellent cross-country ski facilities at Whistler Olympic Park in the Callaghan Valley, just south of Whistler. In just a few weeks, it will be the site of the cross-country, biathlon, Nordic combined and ski jumping events for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. In the meantime, the public is able to ski selected trails in the Park, as well as all of the trails next door at Callaghan Country.
Entrance to Whistler Olympic Park
Lots of fresh snow had been falling the past couple of days in Whistler and the Callaghan Valley. This continued for much of this morning in those areas, but in Squamish it was a few degrees warmer and raining heavily. Fortunately, the weather forecaster’s prediction came true and the precipitation ended by noon. Hints of blue sky peeked through the clouds as I loaded up my ski gear and headed up to Callaghan Country just after lunch.
The morning snow covered up much of the grooming and track setting done prior to opening earlier this morning. This made it for more of a back-country experience as I headed up the Mainline trail up to Callaghan Lake, 9 kilometres away. If you want to see what the area looks like on a clearer day, have a look at my pictures from before Christmas.
Whistler Accreditation Centre Entrance
I only made it a little more than halfway to the Lake before turning back and heading up to Whistler to complete my own accreditation for my volunteer role. I was able to meet some of my fellow volunteers and see how our work area is set up at the Whistler Accreditation Centre. I also had a chance to snap a few pictures of Whistler in the late afternoon sun, including some pictures of my co-workers.
Less Than A Month To Go!
Jan 12th
The 2010 Winter Olympics are soon upon us. The Olympic torch will be lit in BC Place Stadium on Feb. 12, 2010 @ 6:00 pm PST, after a 106-day journey across Canada.
The journey for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) officially began on July 2, 2003, when Vancouver, BC was selected to be the host of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. My own personal Olympic journey started in September, 2009, when I was offered a volunteer position with the 2010 Games.
I invite you to join me here over the next few weeks as I describe my journey on these pages through words, pictures and videos. A little more about my background is here. I’ve also got a page here, where you can let me know about your own Olympic story. Of course, that is an open forum. If you would like to just send me a private message, you can do that here.
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