Day One of the Games: Game 1 and 2

So the level of everything went up yesterday…  you could feel the excitement when I got to my venue from everyone…  Team Sweden’s warm up outside our area was much louder then earlier in the week. The entire workforce probably doubled in size for the game. It was interesting to watch. Our crew size was the same but our workforce break area was packed….   and it was go from the start of the shift until the game was over. So much for having a leisurely start to the shift with time to check the daily task list and so on….

As I suspected, our role changed from the pre-tournament stuff. Now we are gathering stats from Reproduction Print Distribution (RPD). Don’t you love the acronyms??  If I throw some out that you don’t know, please ask….  they bring us the official stats, pre game, after each period and at the end game. We have to put together all the stats into packages for each of the teams and keep a copy for ourselves. We are also responsible for making a dvd copy of the game for each of the countries and that’s probably the most stressful item on our list of stuff to do. We have 2 dvd recorders that tape the live feed from the game and I found out why we need two yesterday as one of the players simply stopped recording in the middle of the first period and it took a solid 2 minutes to get the dvd recorder started again…  We also have a duplicator so we can make the copies all at once. But then we have to label the dvds with the appropriate label and check each one to make sure they play….  all high tech stuff….  and keep a master copy.

I have to say that everyone I work with is really amazing…  Newsy and Dano (the double d’s) are so good at their job and everyone loves working with them. The FOP crew is great, the ICE crew is great, Athlete Services are great…  This is probably one of those things that won’t come through on the tv but will make the games a great experience for the volunteers. The double D’s treat us really well. On that note, we got an unexpected surprise yesterday – 22 tickets for the Canada – Slovakia game at CHP were offered up to our volunteers…  Needless to say the tickets went fast. Unfortunately, our evening crew didn’t get the opportunity so I hope that the offer comes again and we can get some of them to the game as well. Even though the game was a blowout, the atmosphere in CHP was awesome. The crowd actually cheered without being prompted by a jumbotron. Although there were 4 or 5 volunteers acting as cheer leaders as times. It was still and amazing crowd – almost everyone was wearing red and just simply cheering….  I hope the pictures give you a good idea of what it was like, combined with what you might have saw on tv…

So, my only other observation that I have to pass along from my transit rides and walking to the venue – I’ve almost seen it all on the transit now – girls doing their makeup, guys shaving…  yes, shaving…  and then as much as I’m proud to wear the blue jacket, it is expected that you know the answers to general question (Which way is Robson street? How do I get to the P3 parking?)

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