last shift, #13, ladies figure skating

For my last shift, I tried to get a media post, as I wanted to see the hubbub, but was misdirected and could only get posted inside at a media access point. In the meantime, Apolo Ohno was doing an interview and I caught him here.

It's figure skating again. 2 volunteers from my team are figure skaters and one of them pointed out Scott Hamilton. I would not have recognized him. Of all the other media coming in and out, CTV, NBC, RDS, SDS, French TV, etc, I didn't recognize anyone.


The media compound is a bunch of trailers, and I have no idea what's inside. The press have lots of cameras, video equipment and designated spots to be.














I saw the last part of Canadian skater Joannie Rochettte. Her mother died suddenly of a heart attack a few days ago. I think she held it all in until she finished skating. She was so emotional at the end and wanted to cry I'm sure, but not in front of the media. A bunch of us volunteers also felt tears swell in our eyes. One of the volunteers actually got her flowers, a "torch" like vase and a bear for hugs. How thoughtful is that? She finished 3rd in the short program, so I hope she can still stay in the top 3 for the long program to win a medal.

I got off shift at ~10 pm. While I waited for the Games Express bus, there must've been almost 6-7 buses that passed us by as "not in service" or not even full! How can you can see the line of blue jacket volunteers and not pick us up?

On the way home on the skytrain, there was a lady who just collapsed and fell out of the skytrain doors onto the platform and puked. Her friend said that they both drank, but this reaction was not normal and that she may have been drugged. Her friend said that she's been drugged before too. There was also a gentleman who stopped to help and also said that him and his friends have had that happen too. How common is this? And why don't people report this stuff? I really urged the ladies' friend to report it, not to just sleep it off, as there might be a guy wandering around drugging drinks and hoping to get somewhere. I felt helpful by calling an ambulance when no one else would. I really hope there aren't a lot of "bad things" happening during the Olympics. When the paramedics came, I headed for home.

In news coverage, I heard we won gold in ski cross, so I stayed up til midnight to watch. Ashley McIvor!! Medal #10 for Canada, our 5th gold! Ski cross is a great spectator sport.

For my last shift, I got a large blue Swatch watch. I won't be keeping it or some of my other souvenirs, and maybe try to sell them before it loses value on the market.

I gave VANOC 111.5 hours of my life and some of it was good, and some not so good. I put some comment cards in about the unfair deployment of volunteers, selfish and unreliable volunteers, poor food nutrition and quality, lack of leadership and organization skills from Team Leads and Supervisors and poor communication from venue managers to volunteers. I did however, put in some glowing comments about some fellow volunteers I worked with and that they were responsible, helpful, had great work ethic and a joy to work with. I guess you get the whole gamut.

I remember now why I didn't want to be supervisor. I remember volunteering for merchandising for the 1999 Jazz Festival as the assistant to the coordinator. We had a lot of trouble coordinating volunteers, because they call in sick, they don't do their roles, they feel it's all fun and games, not a job. I volunteer to get into the "behind the scenes" action as I have always wanted to be an event planner, but not a human resource person. Or maybe, it's just because good help is hard to find. But to all the joyful volunteers, congratulations for helping out with Vancouver 2010 and being part of Team 2010 with a smile on your face and a great attitude.