The Special Olympics BC Summer Games are now just two weeks away.
Co-Chair of the Organizing Committee Lyn Hall said preparations have gone well to this point.
“At this point, it’s sort of doing the final pieces of the preparation, and saying yes this is done, transportation is good to go, and all of these positions, venues, sporting facilities, it’s just now time to tie the bow on it,” he said.
Hall said transportation is a big piece.
“You can appreciate we’re bringing in almost 1,000 athletes and coaches from around the province, so it’s bus transportation, it’s flight transportation, it’s making sure that we’ve got all of that in place, which it is,” he said.
“We’re now making sure that we’ve got all of our times of arrival, prep for that, particularly at the airport when the flights come in, then you move onto accommodation, we need that bus transportation and timing to be bang on.”
With roughly 1,200 athletes, coaches and participants coming to Prince George for the games, Hall said feeding them will be a big task.
“All of that’s going to take place at CNC, we have Chef Mandy who’s taken over the role of Director of Food Services,” he said.
“There’s no way that we can feed 1,200 people all at the same time, so we’ve got the schedule set up so that there’s around 350 people coming in for breakfast and lunches and dinner at offset times, and you try to get them through as quickly as possible.”
Hall noted they’ll also be delivering some boxed lunches to some of the sporting venues, which creates other challenges.
“Logistically, how do we deliver those boxed lunches, how do make sure that we get to all of the venues within a certain prescribed period of time,” he explained.
“It’s all about timing, that’s what we’re dealing with right now, just to fine tune that timing.”
The other Co-Chair for the planning committee is Renee McCloskey, who also served as the Host Society President for the 2022 BC Summer Games.
“She did a remarkable job for the games, and it was really interesting and kind of funny, when I was first approached to be a part of these games as the Chair, I said I would certainly do it if we can talk Renee McCloskey into coming on board and being a co-Chair with me,” Hall said.
“It’s worked out fabulously, and we took on the challenge and we are really enjoying it. Yes, it’s some work and yes, you have some days when you think by gosh, time is slipping away, we’ve got a couple of big things to do, but we’re really enjoying it.”
Hall added he’s heard from the 42 local athletes participating in the games, and they’re incredibly excited.
“They’re counting down the days and they’re talking about what it’s going to be like to participate in the sport, but meet friends that they haven’t seen for a year from other communities, to make new friends from other communities,” he said.
“This is what it’s all about, the comradery that they have with each other is remarkable and they have such a great time, and quite honestly at the end of the day, it’s a bit of a lesson to be learned.”
Hall noted they’re still looking for volunteers for a number of roles.
“Let’s take the food preparation for example, if people have their FoodSafe, if people have volunteered for food services in the past, say in the 2022 Summer Games, those are folks we would certainly like to have come back,” he continued.
“We have people who have worked either in the soccer community here in Prince George, the basketball community, bocce community, we’re looking for people who have stepped up and worked with those organizations, if you would volunteer for the games and be part of those particular sports, would certainly help us out a lot.”
More information on volunteering can be found here.
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