Volunteers Needed for 2015 TO Pan Am Games

A Major Role for Youth in TO 2015 Pan Am Games

By William Doyle-Marshall

Youth can get involved in various ways with the forthcoming 2015 Pan Am/Para Pan Am Games across Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe between July 10 and August 15, 2015 in various locations throughout the region. Zenia Wadhwani, Director, Community Outreach for the Games disclosed in an exclusive interview that a Youth Advisory Council right now is in the midst of planning a Youth Summit that will be called “Building Legacies”. It will be happening in March of 2015.

  There will be a call for applications this August and they are looking for 300 delegates to participate in the summit which will have as its theme “Building Communities through Sport”. Wadhwani promises that participants will partake in and hear some great speakers as they participate in workshops. Youth engaged in the summit will have an opportunity to go into the community and build community as part of this conference and this summit. “That’s a key thing that we definitely got coming,” she stressed.

Youth participation is part of the Organizing Committee’s plan to recruit more than 20,000 volunteers for the Games. In addition, programmes are targeted to elementary schools students. One is being called Kids in Play. “That’s part of our Pan Am/Par Pan Am Kids programme. We got activity day kids that are going out into every single school and after school programme where you are going to have a Play Day all themed around the Pan Am Games and come later this summer, we are also going to have a full list – probably about 12 to 15 programmes that are actually targeted to youth that not only are from us at the Organizing Committee but from all our sponsors, from our Government Partners there is going to be a huge roster of stuff and there is going to be no excuse for why you can’t get involved and get excited about the games,” the director outlined.

                              Get all Youths in, advise from Saad Rafi, left 

                              CEO to Zenia Wadhwani, outreach director

Saad Rafi, Chief Executive Officer said the planners are putting on something that is going to highlight  the diversity and inclusion of the region for Pan Am and Para Pan Am sports for helping young people be associated and learn more about the cultures of the Americas. Having sport help children become that more confident, with confidence comes better educational attainment, he suggested. Charged with the responsibility of getting the entire volunteer team for the Games Darryl McKenzie, Vice President, Volunteer Services admits the huge recruitment undertaking represents one of the largest calls for volunteers in Canadian peace time. Volunteers will be involved in all aspects of the Games so they will be the people who will be meeting you at your venue; they will be the people who usher you to your seat; they are the people who help athletes and dignitaries move around the games by operating vehicles, he explained.    

Games Chairman David Peterson is confident that even people who are not athletes will find something they’d like in the games. The former Premier of Ontario termed the 2015 Pan Am/Para Pan Am Games as “the cultural celebration of a soul and the birth of an athlete.” He warned against any narrow idea that this is just about the Caribbean, South and Central America. It is more than that as the games would include “all of our cultures”, every single community in this province, Peterson added.

Completely excited about this multi-sport event being hosted by the City of Toronto, the Director of Outreach visualizes the Games ushering in a great sense of pride similar to what emerged out of the Vancouver Olympics a few years ago. She anticipates seeing real change in the region with accompanying sense of pride and belonging. “We will be proud to have hosted these Games. I think that would be a game changer. It would be legacy in terms of the facilities that we are leaving and how the community can access those facilities – that’s fabulous and phenomenal. I think there are some real opportunities in terms of infrastructure changes,” Wadhwani predicted.

Funding partners for the game include the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, the City of Toronto; lead partner CIBC, premier sponsors Atos, Chevrolet Canada, Cirque de Soleil, CISCO and Loblaw; funding partners Government of Canada and Government of Ontario; Toronto -- the Host City; Host municipalities are Hamilton, Ajax, Markham, Mississauga, Oshawa, Saint Catharines, Burlington, Innisfil, Milton, Oreo Medonte, Town of Caledon and Minden Hills as well as special suppliers