By Dee-Ann LeBlanc, on March 26th, 2010%
Another in my series on volunteering with the 2010 Winter Olympics. This time, it’s all about …
Press Conferences
Another duty of a Press Assistant was to help with the Press Conferences. After an athlete finished their run, worked their way through the Mixed Zone, and may or may not have stopped by Anti-Doping on the way to ask for an extension depending on the timing, if they were a medalist they would be escorted to the Press Conference. The Press Conference room was a separate tent set up next to the Venue Media Tent, at least if you were in my area.
Somehow I never ended up with the duty of escorting the athletes down, often I was running off to do something else or replacing Mixed Zone signs with fresh ones for the next day’s events.
The Setup
Generally speaking, there was a long table in the front of the room for the athletes, translators, and the moderator (typically the Venue Media Manager for the sport in question). The rest of the room consisted of two blocks of chairs with an aisle down the middle, and in the back was a spot for the sound technician and a platform for TV cameras and photographers.
Once escorted down from the event, the athletes would go straight to the table, with whoever arrived first getting started with the press conference unless others were coming very close behind them. If it was a team event, then for small teams the whole team may come (say, 4-man Cross-Country relay) or for larger teams the captain and select other members might come. People from anti-doping arrived with them and there were special places up front to ensure that anti-doping was within easy sight of the athlete at all times. Water was available up on the table and giving the doping issues, you have to think ahead of time of how you’re going to handle it so that the athletes are protected and the tests are valid. Also, you don’t want a bottle someone has also used to stay up there and get someone sick.
Press Conference Duties
As a Press Assistant, helping with Press Conferences could involve:
- Running next door to pick up the results from the event so you could pass them out to reporters who didn’t have time to stop on the way
- Carrying a microphone along one side of the room to reporters so they could be heard when asking questions (typically 2 people were doing this)
- Trying to keep various areas clear, such as the doors the athletes and anti-doping entered and exited from
I’m sure there was much more for those in our group who primarily helped in the conferences. I only did this sporadically.
What It Was Like
Press Conferences were typically short but intense given the anti-doping scheduling restrictions. Timings were determined by people radioing ahead to let coordinators know who would arrive when. The Venue Media Manager would use a microphone in the media center to let reporters know who was coming and how long it would be, so they didn’t miss anything.
At times, athletes had a very short amount of time they could spend in the Press Conference. If this was known ahead of time, the moderator might choose the reporters who most needed to be able to ask questions (say, from the athlete’s home country or one of the big international agencies) and would direct the assistants to be in place to handle them first. Then other questions would continue until the athlete had to leave.
There were also translators involved. At one press conference I worked, questions were handled in English, French, and German, with each question having to be relayed in all of the languages and then the answer having to be repeated three times. This practice is necessary but can definitely slow things down! When time was short, the moderator would ask up front if any of the reporters needed French or other translation. If no one did, then things could be sped along.
A tricky part of the conferences was that the tents were heated with these large fans, but those fans were loud. As the conference officially started, the fans had to be shut off. By the end of the press conference it could get pretty cold in there!
Reporters also quickly learned that the sooner the official questions were done, the sooner the conference was over, and the sooner that happened, the sooner they could approach the table and directly talk to the athletes who didn’t need to immediately leave. I can say from experience that athletes who tried to nip right out the door might get swarmed by media before they could manage it. I got caught right in the middle of one of those while trying to keep a door clear. It was surreal to be standing about a foot away from a gold-medal winner, directly in front of him while the person holding TV camera next to me was interviewing him! The press of reporters was so close that it was ultimately smarter to just stand there. I’m short and wasn’t blocking anyone, and would have caused a disruption trying to get out. That’s my excuse anyway. 
 2010 Winter Olympics Press Conference, after the official questions are over. Next time, I’ll talk about how different it was to go to an event as a spectator.
By Dee-Ann LeBlanc, on March 14th, 2010%
Here’s another in my series on volunteering with the 2010 Winter Olympics. This time, it’s all about …
Photographers
You’ll notice I didn’t mention photographers in the Mixed Zone. While technically they might be allowed to enter, often there was no good reason to do so. It would be hard for them to get a good shot from inside the press of people and the Mixed Zone is already pretty crowded.
Instead, photographers had special photo positions marked off by the photo team, selected for how good they were for getting shots of the action and staying out of the athletes’ way. There’s a whole separate hierarchy for who can take commercial photos and where they can take them (complicated by the fact that sometimes a publication had someone who was both an accredited photographer and needed to interview an athlete).
Accredited photographers all had special armbands that were actually tubes of cloth gathered at both ends so they acted more as detachable sleeves that could go over a jacket. Each sleeve had a number specific to that photographer, a color that corresponded to what level of access they had, and often text to more specifically clarify. So, if you had one type of armband, you had access to just the general photo positions, but another might grant you access to the Field of Play for a specific venue (say, the Cross-Country course, where there’s many places along the course a photographer might set up for a shot).
 Armbanded photographers in position at Biathlon. Sometimes the photographers and TV broadcast folks shared areas, and sometimes they didn’t. The TV cameras were often in closer, with the photographers hauling around cameras with massive lenses. Due to all of their equipment, we had lockers for photographers to rent. Broadcasters had their own compound with trailers.
 There's a number of both TV and still cameras in this shot, can you find them? (Hint: Don't forget to look up.) I don’t have as much detail about dealing with photographers as I do about dealing with the journalists, as another volunteer team worked as Photo Assistants. I know that they helped photographers know where they were allowed to go, controlled access to photographer-only areas just like we did with the press, would get photographers places such as taking them out onto the course with a snowmobile to get them into position, etc. A lot of things were time-sensitive as the photographers had to be in position and stay there once a particular point was reached.
For example, there were positions along the side of the ski jump where photographers could try to get photos of how flat the jumpers get while in the air, etc. The photographers were not supposed to get within sight of the jumpers so as not to cause a distraction. With sports like cross-country, there was the issue of photographers new to the sport not really getting that someone could be tearing around a corner at any time since the competitors can get spread out. Radios can help volunteers keep track of who is where and make it safe for a photographer to change position.
 A sea of photographers in position in the Cross-Country stadium, just look for the green armbands. I don’t envy those who were out there trudging in the snow trying to get the perfect shot, or climbing the intense stairs next to the ski jump. But I bet they’re in really good shape!
That’s it for now. Next I’ll talk about press conferences.
By Dee-Ann LeBlanc, on March 6th, 2010%
I’ve talked so far about how I got into the whole volunteering thing, the first round of training I experienced, an Olympic volunteer’s day, and working in the Venue Media Center. This time I’ll get into working in the Mixed Zone.
What is a Mixed Zone?
When an athlete finishes their performance, they pass through the Mixed Zone, where the press waits for a chance to talk to them. In the three stadiums for our venue, it wasn’t hard to spot the Mixed Zones since they were bordered with blue plastic fencing.
 The Ski Jump stadium's Mixed Zone. Each of these three Mixed Zones was divided in half, with the first section being for broadcasters (TV) and the second being for the rest of the press.
 The Broadcaster portion of the Cross-Country stadium's Mixed Zone.  A ski jumper stops to talk to the press in the Mixed Zone during training. Mixed Zone Hierarchy
Hierarchy might not be the right word here, but in general things have to be organized in some kind of order or everyone will mob together and no one will get what they need. Not only does this order have to be worked out, it has to be explained to all involved on both sides of the (proverbial and literal) fence, and it has to be enforced.
There can also be time limits involved on competition days, which complicates things. In the case of high end sporting events, somewhere along the way selected athletes have to go through the anti-doping process to be tested for performance enhancers. Depending on how this testing is arranged, they may have only an hour to get through the Mixed Zone and press conference before having to report and “give samples.”
In our Mixed Zones, athletes passed first through the broadcast area, where they may or may not decide to stop for interviews. I wasn’t heavily involved in the broadcast side, though whichever supervisor was in charge of that particular Mixed Zone had to keep aware of how long the athlete had spent there already and try to keep them moving. This job became far more challenging when dealing with teams, as members could get spread out and hard to marshal as a unit.
I often was in charge of making sure that only Press Attachés (staff members of each country’s team who coordinate PR) were allowed in their part of the Mixed Zone, which was after the broadcast area and before the rest of the press. This was one of the few spots where the fences offered the ability to join the athlete in the corridor, so their Attaché could join them, point out which people the Attaché wanted them to talk to, and so on.
After the Attachés were the international agencies, though I found the word “international” caused some confusion because some thought that term referred to “non-Canadian.” There were actually only four agencies that fell under this group, most of them providing news feeds to press around the world.
Once an athlete passed the agencies, the journalists were ordered by country. Each competition’s was different, depending on which country had the most medal contenders, the most journalists there, and other variables, so part of our job was to help change the signage under the Mixed Zone Supervisor’s direction. Trying to slide pieces of paper in and out of damp plastic covers in freezing temperatures is definitely a challenge! If I do this again I’ll suggest movable signboards for countries, though I’m sure that option was considered and discarded for whatever reason. Maybe from the thought of having to juggle boards for 80 countries in each Mixed Zone.
Controlled Chaos
Mixed Zones can get pretty chaotic when everyone’s trying to get what they need. The goal is of course controlled chaos. In the beginning, there was trouble with people wanting to be there they couldn’t be, and it took a firm hand to tell people of this caliber “no, you can’t do that” while at the same time trying to be friendly and helpful. I think in this sense I was able to draw from the feeling that I’m also a journalist and so I felt like these were my peers.
It also helped to be clear on how the whole setup worked for their benefit. After all our job was to help make everyone’s job easier. One reason for grouping reporters by country was so we could take that country’s athletes and guide them to that group. Often journalists weren’t interested in talking to athletes from other countries, so I definitely found when I explained this factor people tended to gravitate to the right place, though there still were people who wanted to find a way to jump ahead of the others.
There were times when there were huge presses of journalists trying to talk to and audio record the same athletes. For these moments we had microphones and speakers available. Anyone who couldn’t directly hear what was going on and needed to could go over to the speakers and hear it there.
By the end of the games, most people knew exactly how things worked and things felt far less chaotic than they had in the beginning. And it got easier to spot the journalists who had just arrived and looked completely lost.
For more detail than I can give, check out this article from the Washington Post, which provides a colorful look at the Mixed Zone experience.
Press Viewing Areas
In Ski Jump, everything pretty much happens in one place. However, in sports like Cross-Country and Biathlon, the action is spread out, and the design of the stadium doesn’t always allow for putting everything together. These situations required us to have a Mixed Zone for interacting with the athletes and a Press Viewing Area with a better view of the actual action, with television screens in the Mixed Zone for those who couldn’t or didn’t want to run back and forth at a particular time.
These areas were fenced off with normal chain link, and there was a spot in the front for accredited photographers only so their shots wouldn’t be blocked. More on photographers next.
By Dee-Ann LeBlanc, on February 27th, 2010%
I’ve talked so far about how I got into the whole volunteering thing, the first round of training I experienced, and an Olympic volunteer’s day. From here I’ll get into the specific tasks of a Press Assistant, which is a job that might be more accurately described as a press coordinator.
This post focuses on the base of operations for a Press Assistant (at least in Whistler Olympic Park), the Venue Media Center (VMC).
Meet the Press
When it comes to W.O.P., the Venue Media Center acts as a workroom for members of the press. Keep in mind that I’m not talking broadcasters who are filming for TV. Instead, I mean sports writers and photographers. Broadcasters do move through the VMC as well as the rest of the press but they have entirely separate work areas.
Since our VMC handles three sports (Ski Jump, Cross-Country, and Nordic Combined), it’s a pretty big tent building. Only people with particular accreditation credentials are allowed in, and these are checked at the entrance by someone from the Event Services team as well as by us at a glance as people come in.
Our VMC is essentially divided into a number of zones:
- The entryway, where they pass the Press Help Desk on one side (which we staff) and the Photo Help Desk on the other side (which the Photo Assistants staff).
 Me at the Press Help Desk, ready to answer questions.  Across from the Press Help Desk is the Photo Help Desk.
- The writers’ work area, where tables are laid out with network and power jacks, with some areas set aside for major networks who’ve reserved permanent seats.
 On the left are tables set up for reporters to file stories.
- The photographers’ work area, which is similarly set up but with more space for their piles of equipment.
 The Photographers' Work Area where sports photographers edit and file their pictures.
- The media lounge, which is where the press can purchase food, drink, etc.
- The technology help desk for issues having to do with using the technology available in the workroom
- The Olympic News Service (ONS) office relating to the three sports my particular VMC handles
- The FIS office relating to the three sports my VMC handles
You might also notice the 16 televisions all around the room, which we keep set to channels covering the various events.
Setting up the VMC
During my first shift, those of us who were already here helped set up many of the little details of the VMC. For example, there were (gorgeous) stickers to apply to all of the photographer lockers with numbers to match the numbers on the locks. These stickers proved to be an unexpected challenge, as we discovered that large metal objects are often treated with oils before shipping and those oils caused the stickers to do some nasty bubbling. One of my teammates used a lot of elbow grease of his own to wipe the lockers down before we were able to get the stickers on properly.
By properly, I mean all of them level and straight and consistent. This is a job where anal attention to detail is a plus, so I fit right in, heh.
Stickers also had to be applied to every seat at the tables. The numbers on the stickers were mostly used to identify a seat to technical support when calling in a problem. I think they also mark where the reserved seating is, as there are specific locations in the room set aside for organizations like AP and Reuters.
We also helped to sort and organize supplies, assemble boxes that would be used for additional storage plus things like moving items between the workroom and other areas, and so on.
Common Workroom Tasks
One of the first things you see when entering the workroom is the whiteboard. This board contains competition, training, and press conference schedules for Biathlon, Cross-Country, Nordic Combined, and Ski Jump, along with weather information and any important schedule change notices. The board is updated by Press Assistants at the end of each day, and as needed during each day.
The next thing you might notice is the state of the workroom. One perennial task is to keep the place clean and orderly. The goal is to have someone walking in see a space that they actually want to work in. So, to this end, we regularly walk around and pick up trash, push in chairs, and so on. Sometimes this particular task ends up feeling a bit too much like Sisyphus constantly pushing his stone up the hill, only to have it roll back down, but it does make the room look better and feel more inviting.
Another task is simply keeping someone at the desk to answer questions. These can range across a wide range of issues:
- Accessing the network, which we can help them with to a certain extent, there’s also a technical help desk on site
- How to contact various members of the VANOC staff
- When to expect certain events to take place
- Where to find the information they need, which is often available on an intranet or on the Vancouver 2010 site
- Where to get lockers, etc., which are the easy questions, we just point across the room at the Photo Help Desk
- Lost and found items
There’s many more issues but I actually spent most of my time outdoors. I suspect that’s where I’ll be tomorrow for my final volunteer shift. It’s gone by so fast!
Next I’ll talk about working in the Mixed Zone.
By Dee-Ann LeBlanc, on February 26th, 2010%
In Part 1 I discussed what it was like to sign up and be chosen as an Olympic volunteer. Part 2 covered the pre-training I received as a local able to drive up to the venue before the athletes arrived.
This time I’ll discuss a general day in the life of a volunteer.
Getting Ready
I’ll admit it right now, I am not a morning person. By nature I’m a late owl. Due to the hours of some of my shifts, and the fact that we have to go out and set some things up before an event, there are mornings that I get up at 4:20am. That’s when I often like to go to bed!
I try to have everything in place before I go to bed, which means snacks in my backpack, clothes laid out, accreditation in my backpack so I can’t forget it, pulling unnecessary items out of my backpack, etc.
Getting There
The great thing is that I don’t have to drive at OMG o’clock, though the trade-off is that I’m at the mercy of when the buses travel. However, it also meant getting used to the bus schedule. The first day I had it easy since the bus was there waiting when I arrived, giving me no real feeling for its schedule, but I wasn’t complaining.
When you see/hear people discussing the sea of blue at the games, they mean it. The VANOC staff and the volunteers all (mostly) wear the same uniforms. It’s hard to see Olympic coverage where you don’t spot at least one of us unless all you can see is the athletes! Riding the buses together has allowed me to meet people from many different countries and exchange stories about what we’re doing with the games. I also met locals I have a ton in common with, funny how that happens.
 Vancouver 2010 volunteers and staff travel on buses to and from the Whistler venues. Depending on the time of day, the buses are either mostly silent with people dozing during the hour-long drive, or full of chatter. My first day was the former, which allowed time for quiet relaxation along the way.
Checking In
When I first started my shifts, it was a week before the Games began. At that time, we weren’t in full security mode. These days “mag and bag” security is in effect, meaning that we go through a security checkpoint and if a scan of the bar code on our accreditation says we’re selected by the computer, our bags are searched and we have to go through airport-style scanners and potentially be wanded. I’ve only been chosen for checking twice so far out of 12 shifts so it’s not so bad.
Once we’ve passed through security, we go to check-in. There, volunteers scan our accreditation again, give us our meal vouchers, mark our shift cards to show how many shifts we’ve completed, give us our daily newsletters, give us our “shift gifts” if we get one that day, give us a bottle of water for hydration, and then send us on our way.
 My shift tracking card 8 shifts in. The fun mornings are when we get our gifts of course, as marked by the oh so Canadian beaver on the shift cards. The shift gifts are pieces of Olympic merchandise like Quatchy below:
 Quatchy the sasquatch is one of the mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. or special items just for volunteers. For example, for my third shift, I got the Team 2010 pin below.
 A pin only for those working as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Note: I don’t want to make volunteering with the Olympics seem like it’s all about gifts. But, I admit it, I like presents. Imagine if you got a present every few days you went to work. Though I suppose the boss might say your present is your check!
Since my part of the venue is over 1km (about .6 miles) from the entrance, I take a shuttle to Ski Jump/Cross-Country/Nordic Combined.
Down to Business
What each volunteer does from there entirely depends on their work assignment. I’ll get into my specific jobs in a later post, but in general, we go check in with our supervisor, make sure we’re clear on what we need to be doing, and then get down to business. There are break tents scattered throughout the venue where coffee, hot water for tea, and hot chocolate is available along with cookies for snacks. They’re a good place to retreat for a little quiet downtime, to get to know your fellow workers better, or to watch the TVs spread throughout the tent to see how the various competitions are going.
The break tents are also where we’re served meals. We get one for each five hours we’re allotted to work, which typically works out to one meal on-site per day. Meals consist of either a sandwich or hot entree (depending on the day), a piece of fruit, a granola bar of some kind, and a drink. I think many would agree with me that often the highlight of the meal is often the soup, where we get two choices and most of them are pretty good.
Ending the Day
At the end of our day, Olympic volunteers check in one last time with their supervisors to make sure they know when they need to come in next as schedules can become flexible due to event time changes, people being out sick, or being put on a sub-team within your team that focuses on specific tasks. Sometimes we also had a bit of a group debriefing on what worked well and what didn’t, especially toward the beginning.
Once released back into the wild, we head back to the busses to catch the next one home. While they come on particular schedules, if a bus fills up it goes ahead and leaves, and luckily the next one is often waiting there. Given that many volunteers spend much of the day on their feet and/or running around, it’s nice to have a place to sit, especially one out of the elements.
I’ve spent part of my commuting time experimenting to determine where along the route is the best point to call my husband, so that he doesn’t have to circle the parking lot too many times waiting for me, and I don’t have to stand out in the cold waiting for him. It’s become a bit of a game, at least when I remember and don’t become distracted by interesting conversations! But that’s fun too.
More to come …
By Dee-Ann LeBlanc, on February 19th, 2010%
This is the second in a series of posts on volunteering with the 2010 Winter Olympics. See the first post here.
Learning the Ropes
After getting my uniform, the next task was to attend Venue-Specific Training. Essentially, various parts of the games were occurring in different venues, such as Whistler Olympic Park, which has Ski Jumping, Cross-Country, Nordic Combined (jumping plus cross-country), and Biathlon (skis and guns, this one still makes me think of James Bond movies).
Only those who lived close enough to easily attend or were already there for their staff or volunteer work were brought in for the pre-games training. The idea was to get some of the locals in, a bit familiar with the sports and the area where they’d be working, and able to help the new arrivals later. So I headed up to Whistler Olympic Park for the first time.
Whistler Olympic Park
Most of the buildings in W.O.P. are temporary. They’re actually tents, but these aren’t summer camping tents. These tents are buildings in their own right and are comfortable and warm. We gathered in one of the tents for the training.
 - Whistler Olympic Park Venue-Specific Training
Topics ranged from what to expect as a volunteer, some of the procedures we’d be following such as airport-level security screenings to enter the venue, history of the sports, and a bit about each. Apparently some of the (3 hour) trainings at other venues had been deadly dull and our group was determined not to let that happen. As you can see here, that wasn’t a problem:
 There were few dull moments at the W.O.P. training. The Tour
After getting the low-down, we were broken into groups according to our volunteer assignments. It was tour time! I got together with the Press Operations folks and we walked over 1km (about .62 miles) to the ski jump area first. Things weren’t quite ready yet in that there were more signs to go up and the areas were still getting groomed, but it was easy to imagine what things would ultimately look like. Then we went to cross-country.
I confess that I was (and am) out of shape. I ended up focusing on breathing and not falling during the hike and didn’t end up taking any pictures outdoors. I did manage to take some pictures later, so here’s a shot of the ski jumping area taken after all of the Normal Hill competitions were finished (meaning that only the Large Hill is in use now, which is why the fencing has been moved over):
 2010 Winter Olympics Ski Jump at Whistler Olympic Park Here’s the cross-country venue during one of the competitions:
 The 2010 Winter Olympics Cross-Country Venue from the Press Viewing Area When all was said and done I was tired but excited. The next time I would see the W.O.P. would be my first official volunteer shift, which began before the games officially started. More on that later!
See the next post in this series here.
By Dee-Ann LeBlanc, on February 15th, 2010%
Way back in 2003, Vancouver was chosen to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Swept up in the excitement, my husband and I went to a celebration rally, got some shirts, and signed a thing saying we were interested in volunteering. I’m not sure whatever happened to that sign-up sheet. I think it was just there for the feel-good vibes.
I kept saying that when the Olympics came around, I was going to volunteer. I’m a big talker. I say I’ll do a lot of things. I’ll eat healthier, I’ll use my treadmill more, I’ll use my bike regularly, I’ll floss after every meal, and I’ll blog every day no matter what. But while I honestly mean it when I make such declarations, I’m not always so great on the follow-through.
Following Through
Around September of 2009 or so I realized that I still hadn’t filled out the long application form for volunteering. It was mostly due to laziness, I’m a bit allergic to forms, but I finally sat myself down to tackle the monster that was the volunteer application. Fortunately it didn’t take long to see that these folks have their act together. (Yeah, I admire efficiency, I hate having my time wasted.) I was able to select three areas where I felt I could be of the most use, out of options ranging from transport to technology, and explain what experience I had in each of these areas. Much of the rest involved information needed for security background checks and how much you’d be available.
Volunteers are asked to provide a minimum of 13 8-10 hour shifts throughout the games (though I think there were some areas where they didn’t need such a big patch of time as well). This is a large time commitment, but I do understand why they ask this. It takes a lot to get a volunteer geared up, background checked, trained, etc., and we get to keep our gear once we’ve worked our shifts, which is great! Some of the tasks are mostly before the games, and some are mostly during. There’s also a whole setup to try to get volunteers from out of the area places to stay locally, but living in the area or already having somewhere to stay is a massive plus. Given that I live smack dab in the middle of the venues, that’s an easy one for me.
Once I had my paperwork in, it was mostly a waiting game. The next major step aside from things like background checks involved a 15 minute phone interview. This interview is conducted by volunteers and helps clarify availability, information about the tasks you’ve expressed interest in to make sure there’s no misunderstandings, and general “getting to know you” stuff. I enjoyed my interview, the woman I talked to was very pleasant and was having a good time pitching in.
Joining Press Operations
From there it was waiting again until I finally received an invitation to join the Press Operations team as a Press Assistant for Ski Jump, Cross-Country, and Nordic Combined (where the participants do both Ski Jump and Cross-Country) at Whistler Olympic Park. This was exactly the kind of job I was hoping for and I thought about a millisecond before accepting! From there I started getting team newsletters with prep materials so I’d understand what was coming, I looked over my schedule and sent in the dates that I wasn’t available for a shift, I used the slick web site they set up for volunteers to sign up for when I would get my uniform and my training for the W.O.P. venue, and I bounced around a lot and told anyone who would listen.
As the games got closer, the materials rolled in faster. Suddenly I found myself driving up to get my uniform and my accreditation (my ID). Again, I was struck by how well-organized everyone was! Not that everything was perfection but what is? The process was relatively painless, and kind of funny since the guy walking me through trying on gear started me with all medium clothing. That was sweet of him and all, but no, that wasn’t gonna work. I’d love to know if they started all women with mediums. Or if the guys did at least, in fear for what might happen to them if they started with bigger sizes. 
Once I had my uniform when I got home I just had to have some pictures:
 Dee-Ann LeBlanc - Press Assistant: Ski Jump, Cross-Country, and Nordic Combined at Whistler Olympic Park - 2010 Winter Olympics On to Part II …
By Dee-Ann LeBlanc, on February 15th, 2010%
And now for something a little different. Thanks to KC Dyer who nudged me to share this here, I wasn’t sure it really fit into the blog but I suppose it is about all of my writings, not just my tech stuff.
The Games
by Dee-Ann LeBlanc
Sometimes I feel too much.
Everything ugly in this world
everything ugly wrought by man
famine, sickness,
bigotry, war
and the endless droning
of cynical voices
incapable of any kind of joy
Weighs down on me
suffocating
until I can only
curl around the
sputtering spark
that’s left of my
once bright spirit
I think that’s what drew me
to the flame of the games
Not the literal flame
of the real world,
with its human flaws
so easily listed
But to the ideal of the games
To the bright flame
of love, courage,
peace, strength, and dedication
that draws people together
in a world seemed determined
to tear us apart
So while cynics protest
just for the attention
and politicians manipulate
for selfish gains
I’ll rest my sputtering spark
for a while
in the arms of the flame
And find warmth
in the hopes of the games
By Dee-Ann LeBlanc, on January 4th, 2010%
I live in the middle of the corridor where the 2010 Winter Olympics is taking place. I’m also spending about half of February and part of January training for volunteering and then volunteering for the games. I’m volunteering in Press Operations at the Whistler Olympic Park venue, which attends to events like ski jumping and the biathlon, and I’ll be sharing part of that experience through this blog.
Right now there’s lots of reading to be done and excitement is building. There’s a Facebook group for people working for and volunteering for the games, and video thank yous are starting to show up there from Canadian notables like members of the Canadian Olympic figure skating team and Jillian Harris (apparently the only Canadian on the Bachelorette and she’s from Vancouver, I don’t watch the show so that’s all I know about her).
Later this month I go to pick up my uniform and then get trained on where I’ll be working as a Press Operations Assistant. I’m sure I’ll be doing everything from fetching coffee (it’s kind of sad I don’t know how to make it, I don’t drink it!) to helping journalists get to work to helping get journalists and athletes together. As a journalist at least part of the time myself, I look forward to seeing the world from another side of things and being part of an event that really is a once in a lifetime experience.
I might even learn a bit about sports!
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