Melsea's Volunteer Journey at the Commonwealth Games

[melsea]

My Volunteer journey from Maidstone to Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014.

It all started when I sat at my computer & applied to be a volunteer, but what drove me to make that decision I have no idea. And so it was in August 2013 I received an email to say I was invited for an interview in Glasgow! Which I duly accepted, I flew to Glasgow on Oct 2 on what is surely one of the shortest flights I have ever been on, breakfast included. I along with numerous other perspective volunteers arrived at Albion Street where the headquarters of the Commonwealth Games were run from. Like many an interview I have ever had to attend, this one is the first I have been to in a long while. So my nerves were somewhat elevated, even more so when we were being interviewed in what I can only best describe as an open plan space with only a small partition to separate you from another interviewee! The noise was, well noisy and those of us with hearing issues will sympathise with my challenge to hear the questions. I answered as best I could, although what questions they were really asking were "what would you do if this wall came down and you were given the role to lead us to safety" okay they didn't actually ask that but it's wasn't far off the mark. Well to ask how did I feel it went?, I truly don't think I really need to answer that.
So having got that out of the way I had no illusions that I would ever be picked for this once in a life time opportunity. So onwards with life and life moved on until quite out of the blue in January 2014 I received an email congratulating me and I was now one of 15,000 Clydesider volunteers, especially when over a mouthwatering 50,811 had applied! My role was to be in Transport, at this point I had absolutely no idea what this meant or what my role would actually be.
What next one may ask? In the months that followed before the Games began I was to visit Glasgow several times for training, picking up my much awaited uniform & my pass to get me in!
16th July arrived, it seem to go so much quicker than it should have done; was I prepared? No!, was I ready? No! The real question was what am I doing here, I am a Volunteer, get me out of here?? No really I was looking forward to it, it was just such things as the unknown of not knowing if I would be able to do it, would I get on with complete strangers?, would I stumble when and if I were to meet the famous & not so famous athletes, media, dignitaries even Royalty!! Who am I kidding that wasn't going to happen surely?. It was the knowledge that I was not going to be the only one who would feel that way that kept me sane.
With a week before it all kicked off we were doing ongoing onsite training of how we were going to make life easier for those attending.
We were not quite thrown into the Dragons Den but it sure felt like it but we were not completely on our own as we had a good team of Volunteer Team Leaders & Team Venue Managers who were there as our get out of jail card!
Maggy Ng who was one of a team of managers who came from Malaysia and was quite frankly one of the best leaders we had along side Zoe from Scotland & then we had Georgia from Cyprus who as someone said 'chaos in the form of Georgia' she was funny and chaotic. So there I was with other eager volunteers having a team who were so diverse in their ways of dealing with things it was funny & oh so confusing at times and that was before the games started & dealing with the different cultural mind sets of where they came; but they did have criteria to follow, well when it worked they did. But hey it sounds worse than it was.
I was assigned to two venues, Hampden Park, the athletics competition venue and the stage for the closing ceremony,my other place at Ibrox which is where the Rugby Sevens was held. I was responsible for arrival and departure of athletes, technical officials and members of the press.
Each shift comprised 8 hours of my time but with travel time my days were in reality just over the 10 hours. I did have days off to recover and to explore more of Glasgow, there was a whole lot more happening.
The excitement of seeing the various athletes was rather surreal at the beginning when they were coming to the venues before the competition to train at the specially built training areas. The Athletes with their training teams were just as excited and happy to be there and with us greeting them with a warm welcome and a smile they responded in the same way with big smiles! When the competition started their focus was definitely on the mission in hand, to win a Commonwealth Gold Medal. Many would be in what is termed as 'being in the zone' wearing headphones listening to a song that tells their body that they are ready and the all important part of their psyche to perform for that one moment of glory. Along the way you get to chat to some of them and even have moment of sheer surrealism. It was during the first week of my volunteering when a young Nigerian lady Javelin thrower was waiting for the bus with her coach to take them back to the Athletes Village. Another volunteer I was working with Helen who was Scottish mention to the coach that she and her husband worked in Nigeria back in the 1970's where he was a doctor. She mention the village and the coach said this was where he comes from. So a nice natural connection and rapport was made. I have no idea how what happened next happened but a discussion about Scottish dancing was being made when the suggestion of teaching the coach & Javelin lady how to do a traditional dance. Well the sight of this was the most bizarre thing I have ever witnessed in the blazing late afternoon Glasgow sunshine, it was hilarious.
As I mentioned I worked at two venues, Ibrox Stadium staging the Rugby Sevens was definitely one of my highlights. The workforce break area was we were told the best place of all the venues. They were not wrong. This being the stadium where Rangers play, they, like all football clubs up & down the country have expensive seats in the house, the boxes and a restaurant. From here you see the whole pitch from high up. So it was here that you had to search for a seat to watch the games, and have your lunch or dinner depending on your shift, it was not just used by us the Volunteers but by the security, the police and army personnel. Quite illustrious company we were keeping. My special moment was watching a match between England & Scotland, it was the game everyone wanted to see so I was pleasantly surprised to be seated at the front of one of the open boxes. I was getting rather caught up with the atmosphere when England scored first, I cheered and I was immediately aware that I was the only one doing the cheering, yes you've guessed it I was surrounded by Scots, oh what a moment of embarrassment, they just laughed and shrugged it off. Incidentally England won that match. Rugby Sevens being a very quick game I saw 3 matches that day. Priceless memories for me.
Another highlight for me here was seeing a couple of past Olympic Champions with whom I had photos taken with them. The first Athlete arrived in one of the allocated vehicles that were for various VIP's and family members of athletes. The gentleman that was coming towards me was none other than the decathlon double Olympic champion of the 1980's Daley Thompson, I said hello and asked if I could have a photo with him, he laugh and said yes, photo taken & off he went. I turned to two of my fellow volunteers and said that was amazing but I would be even more amazed if Allan Wells turned and then I would definitely want a photo with him and that would make my day. He is my hero, 100m Olympic Gold Medalist at the 1980's Moscow Olympics. No sooner had I uttered these words another car turned up and out came Allen Wells. Complete shock & amazement I was able to say hello and I got that photo! I must mention that my very first photo I got with an Athlete was outside Glasgow Central Station when coming towards me a multi Gold Para-Olympian Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson. So thanks to her I was able to be brave enough to get a few photos of many people.
My time here seemed to be flying pass and it was all too soon coming to an end. My final shift was at Hampden Park on August 1st, not quite the end of the games but still an important evening of sport on the tracks. Many Athletes were turning up and not all of them participating but to watch the races that were heats for the big ones the next day. It was getting darker earlier than other days since the weather had not been kind for a week. So there I was awaiting for the big name to come by but they seem to extremely illusive in their arrival. So there I was just standing waiting for the two buses that were waiting for their allotted time to depart when a car pulled up in a space near the buses. My immediate thought process was that, that car should not be stopping there and was about to go towards the offending car when an Athlete stood no more than a bus width in front of me got out of the car. I was standing with another volunteer and we both looked at each other and said that's him. In the many pockets that are part of our uniforms we both frantically searching for our phones to get a photo but by the time we did, the athlete was at the other end of the bus and about to go through security I managed to get two photos, it was the back of them, who you may ask was it, it was none other than Usain Bolt! He was competing in the heats of the 4x100 metre relay that evening. Not quite the picture I wanted but I got a bit of him. The evening finished with goodbyes to those I worked with and we had already exchanged emails to keep in contact. My final experience of the games was to go to the Closing Ceremony, a very fitting way to end what has truly been an amazing experience. I received an email from one the ladies who lives just outside Glasgow and she had written this of me " It still makes me smile when I think about you guiding in those huge buses. You were such a 'pocket rocket' of energy, enthusiasm and positivity. Lovin' it! I guess that just about sums it up for me.
There is only one more thing to add and that's this. Thank you Glasgow, you were truly an awesome City with awesome people. You have all been so welcoming and so nice even when I had to ask you to repeat yourselves when I couldn't understand you!! Glasgow well done I was sorry to leave this amazing City.

[oldbluefox]

Congratulations Melsea and thank you for a fascinating insight into the world of a volunteer at the Games.

[Ranchi]

Must Echo Foxy's words; well done Melsea. We went to table tennis, gymnastics & rugby7s. Thought Glasgow did very well. Very friendly, welcoming and well organised. I couldn't believe how easily we got buses from Ibrox back to Glasgow centre ( & then the local train back to the south of Glasgow to where we parked our car) on Saturday evening. We were impressed with all of the volunteer guides. I think this volunteering 'thing' is a very good way to build community spirit ( I know care must be taken not to compromise people's paid work). London obviously paved the way with the Olympics & Glasgow clearly built on that spirit.
Care must also be taken to make sure that volunteering doesn't incur excessive costs thus barring less advantaged people from taking part in such a valuable venture ( e.g. Travelling costs for training and to try on the uniform etc.)

Once again, well done.
Steve

[GillD46]

An interesting read - thank you for sharing your experience.

[melsea]

Thanks guys, it was an amazing experience.

Ranchi, the cost of doing this was not cheap but not too far reaching for me but none the less it was an expense I could have done without. I was though very lucky to find a place to stay in a house that was in an area in between the two venues I was working costing £350 for 16 days, an absolutely bargain. There was something called a Volunteer Fund Pot of which you can apply for some funding, I was given £30 towards my cost. I thought they made a mistake but apparently the larger amounts for given priority to those local to Glasgow where a good number got all their expenses paid. But I was grateful for a little and I would not change my experience, I had a ball. I did manage to go to two events Squash and Hockey both events I have never watched before but I did play once.
I also got a number of badges from athletes too.
By the way I did get to keep my uniform which was very comfortable to wear.

[jay-ell71]

Hi Mel.
Well done, what an experience.