by David Flint
Debbie Pentak, a resident of Garfield Road in Stephentown, is off to Vancouver on Friday for the Winter Olympics. She won’t be competing as an athlete but will be helping out the Vancouver Organizing Committee as a volunteer. There’s no pay for this, but the experience, she said “is priceless.”
Debbie and a friend of hers from Ohio have had experience with this type of thing before. They were volunteers at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, then at the International University Games held there the following year and also at the
Belgrade International Games in 2008. The Olympics was by far the most interesting and the most fun, Debbie said. She went originally to Torino for the purpose of learning Italian but found that the experience led to valuable new friendships and opened the door to many wonderful new opportunities.
She signed up early to volunteer for Vancouver and even travelled out there last year to scout out the area. She found it to be a most beautiful city, and she couldn’t believe her good fortune when a resident offered her and her friend the use of a home right in downtown Vancouver for the duration of the Olympics. This means she will be able to walk to her assigned work station.
At this point Debbie knows that her job title is Operations Assistant but does not know specifically what her duties will be. She will probably be assigned to help out at the major downtown stadium, Vancouver’s BC Place, which seats 55,000 spectators and sports the largest air-supported stadium roof in North America. This will be the venue for both the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the nightly Victory Ceremonies. She expects to work 13 to 18 8-hour shifts. Husband Stephen, an artist and retired art professor, will not be traveling to Vancouver with her but expects to join her later in the month.
The volunteer program for the 2012 Olympic Games in London is gearing up now and Debbie expects to be one of the first to sign up.