Arctic Winter Games still needs more volunteer shifts covered, host society says
CBC
With 20 different sports and hundreds of youth athletes competing across multiple venues, the Arctic Winter Games needs a huge number of volunteers to be successful.
But efforts to secure enough volunteers have hit some bumps in the road, according to the host society, including delays securing criminal record checks and some confusion over leave for some government employees.
“[Volunteers] are absolutely our engine,” said host society president Tracey Bilsky.
She said the Whitehorse 2026 Arctic Winter Games Host Society had hoped to bring around 2,000 volunteers on board, but not everyone completed their criminal record checks on time.
“A lot of them are away in sunny places, and so they're not back in time,” said Bilsky.
Still, she said, “we are good for numbers,” with the tally sitting at around 1,700 as of Friday, Feb. 27.
What would make a difference, she said, is if current registrants could take on a couple of extra shifts.
“If we got to 20 hours per volunteer, we would be sitting so well,” she said.
Volunteers need at least 12 hours, or three shifts, to qualify for a uniform — which she said many see as one of the best perks of the job.
“You see people walking their dogs years later in former games uniforms,” Bilsky said.
People who did not get their criminal record checks on time are still able to volunteer as parking attendants or in other roles that don’t interface with the youth athletes.
Beyond the uniform, Bilsky said volunteers rave about meeting people they otherwise wouldn’t meet and, in some cases, forming lifelong friendships.
“It's those volunteers that have volunteered for the 2007 [Canada] games and then 2012 and 2020 that know what it's all about," she said, "and they were the first ones to volunteer because they know how fun it can be.”
Bilsky had heard that some Yukon government employees had hoped to be paid their regular salary to volunteer, as they were during the 2007 Canada Games, she said.
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