The Seduction of the Green Shirt

Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games

What started as a spontaneous act in August 2009 when I saw the promotion for volunteers on a McDonalds' tray liner has turned into a wonderful opportunity to work with people from around the world.

While in attendance at a interview workshop, it took Mark all of 15 minutes to volunteer for the games. The fact that he is fluent in a myriad of German dialects as well as knowing some French and Spanish made him a valuable commodity.

We are both NOC (National Olympic Committe) assistants. Our roles during the games will be vastly different (as I am not fluent in German, or French, or Spanish, or .... ). Currently he is the only volunteer that can speak German (and also has indepth knowledge of Soccer... aka Football) he will be working with the delegations from Austria, Germany and Switzerland (as a start). I am not sure which delegation I will be working with, but given my background it appears that I will be in a position in which that involves multi-tasking and not reacting to stress situations in less than a positive manner.

This is the FIRST Youth Olympic Games (2 years from now the Winter Youth Games will be held in Innsbruck - we have already put in our applications to work there). While the concept of these Games are similar to the Olympic Games we are more familiar with, there are some tweaks. Basketball, for example, will be a 3 on 3 event; Swimming will not include synchronized swimming or water polo.

In addition to the sporting events, the athletes will be involved in Cultural Education activities (we aren't sure of what these will be, as the schedule is not yet released). Athletes participating have to be in attendance for the entire 2 weeks of the games. To give you an idea what might be behind the activities is the key concepts that are reinforced with everything: Excellence, Respect and Friendship.

On Friday, May 7th, was a big kick off celebration. "99 Days" till YOG (Youth Olympic Games). I being naive to Chinese culture didn't get the whole 99 days deal, as they were making a very big deal about this - but am now aware (although not fully educated) to the fact that in the Chinese culture '99' is a lucky number. I have since learned that '50' is another such, lucky number, which I find fortunate as I wll be turning 50 this July.

YOG will have over 20,000 volunteers working (97% of the YOG workforce is volunteers); that is a whole lot of people wearing a lime green polo shirt. So I have come to the conclusion that while working with individuals around the world is a pretty cool thing; the real force in obtaining volunteers from 14-78 to work in 80% humidity and to be the seduction factor of the green shirt.

Continued updates on our ventures as YOG NOC Assistants in the days and weeks to come.