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EDITORIAL: Alberta Summer Games need volunteers to step up

With only six weeks left until athletes start arriving in Okotoks and Diamond Valley, several hundred volunteer positions still need to be filled.
SA-Summer Games Kickoff BWC 2344 web
Dawgs players Trey Nott (left) and Brandon LeBlanc pose with Games director of protocol Marlene Donnelly and chair Sandi Kennedy during a kick-off event for the 2023 Alberta Summer Games at Bill Robertson Park on July 23 2022.

The Alberta Summer Games need your help. 

The eyes of the province will be on us next month when 3,000 athletes, coaches and officials descend on Okotoks and Diamond Valley for what will likely be the biggest sporting event most of the competitors ever take part in. 

The Games are truly a ‘mini-Olympics’ as they’ll not only include competition in 14 sports, but they’ll feature an opening ceremonies, athletes’ villages and Torch Celebration, among much else. The four days the competitors spend in the Foothills will provide memories that will last for years to come. 

In order to pull off this massive undertaking, and to ensure visiting youngsters have an enjoyable experience, the community needs to get behind the Games. A volunteer board of directors headed by former Okotoks mayor Sandi Kennedy has been hard at work since before Okotoks and Diamond Valley were awarded the Games, but as they draw near, organizers need members of the community to step up. 

We’re only six weeks out from the time when buses filled with teenage athletes will start arriving on our doorstep, yet several hundred volunteer positions remain unfilled. The vast majority of these vacancies have nothing to do with athletics, and require no special skills, they just need people who want to help the community put its best foot forward. 

So, if acting as a den mother at an athletes’ village or running carnival games to keep kids entertained in the evening sound like fun ways to give back, then put your name forward. If helping out in the food centre or in traffic control is more your thing, there are positions to be filled there too. 

Over 1,000 people have already stepped up to plate to help the Summer Games, which run from July 20 to 23, but it will take about 1,500 volunteers to get the job done. If you can lend some time, please visit 2023asg.com. 

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