Right around the same time that we decided to make the commitment for the Glasgow Tour, I was approached by the organizer of the Calgary Marathon, to see if we could provide some volunteers to help with pre-race set-up, and race day bag check-in. The Calgary Marathon team, lead by Kirsten Fleming, very graciously offered the girls an honorarium if we could commit 20 volunteers per day.
As is the case with all of the adventures that this team embarks on, the parents and players were eager to commit their time, for the greater good of the team.
Saturday May 31st - Race Set-Up Day
The Saturday pre race group had two main jobs: 1) Savage heavy lifting, race course set up. and 2) Race Recycling. Clearly the winners on the day were the Race Recycling team, who's main job was to educate racers that attended the Expo, on which recycle bins to use.
Take Aways from Day One
- Heavy lifting sucks.
- Starbucks cups are not recyclable (however the lids and sleeves are).
- Old Dutch DOES NOT have a winner with the new Rip-L Spicy Marinara chips!
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| This crew was all smiles at the start. I'm not sure that they were this smily at the end of the heavy lifting shift! |
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| "Do It Green" events recycling Co. With an intimidating crew like this, would you dare put your paper in the wrong bin? |
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| The mean, and the green. |
Sunday June 1st - Race Day
For the crew on day two, their Sunday morning started EARLY. Amazingly, when I walked into the Volunteer check-in room at 5:30 AM, the room was full of Rangers parents and players, all with smiles on their faces.
The role for today's crew was to collect bags with personal belongings from the racers (placed in plastic bags with numbers on them that matched the racers bib number). As the racers completed the course, they would come back to collect their belongings.
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Volunteer Coordinator, Kim Wedgerfield told us over the day that there were an estimated 16,000 bags checked in. |
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| Bag ladies. |
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| We couldn't resist the temptation to hang a little club support on the bag check booth.... |
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| The full Sunday crew. |
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| Indy and Andi taking 5 seconds to pose. Indy was still buzzing from the 5:00 am cappuccino that I made her. |
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| Mini Kate and Emma were constantly stealing my customers.... |
Having been a part of the Sunday crew, and having witnessed all of this myself. I have to say that our girls and parents, were absolutely incredible. The girls were pleasant, engaging, humble (numerous people thanked them for volunteering), charming, and they literally sprinted down the rows of bags when they were collecting a bag for a weary racer.
As you all know, it is a real honour for me to be able to spend the time that I do with the girls. They constantly amaze me with their resilience and work ethic. Today, they took their status to a whole new level, I am EXTREMELY proud of how they represented themselves, and their club.
Take Aways from Day Two
- Running 42KM is stupid.
- Your girls are all amazing. Tell them!
- Old Dutch DOES NOT have a winner with the new Rip-L Spicy Marinara chips!
Our volunteer co-ordinator Kim, spoke very highly of the girls, and gave them tremendous praise. She told me that she has done this role for years, and she has never had a group as engaged, hard working, and likeable as ours. She even went as far to say that she has other events that she runs, if we want to earn a little bit more money...
Very well done everyone, this was a tremendous event for us to participate in, and it was a great start for our fund raising efforts.
