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发自一个志愿者的内心世界LAURIE SMITH
悉尼奥运会专家
Sydney Olympic volunteering specialist
This is from the heart; it is an honour to share my experiences, but in particular to be involved in a small piece of your journey towards Beijing 2008. Nothing brings the people of the world together in peace, love and friendship like the Olympic Games. When I attended my first Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968, I was a young impressionable 20 year old. I did not think much about the cultural situation, as it was my first trip outside Australia; all I was thinking about was that I would see the world’s best athletes. It was the height of the ‘Cold War’, and there was talk that some were the baddies and some were the goodies! Well, security was not what it is today, and some of my friends on the Australian Team got me into the Olympic Village by just lending me track-suits. I had no accreditation – how times have changed! On one of my visits I found myself in the games room playing doubles table tennis. There was a Russian, a Spaniard, a Swedish fellow and myself – we could not communicate verbally, but we were communicating through this common interest (table tennis)! That was when I thought to myself HOW GOOD IS THIS? THE AVERAGE RUSSIAN, SPANIARD OR SWEDE ARE JUST LIKE US, fun-loving people who just want to live in peace and friendship. That is what made Olympism so special to me, and has kept bringing me back for over 36 years.
I have been asked many times ‘Why do volunteers volunteer?’ and in particular why did I devote five years to the Sydney Olympic and Paralympic volunteer programs, including compiling a book on the experience? Well from a personal situation, Sydney was my 9th Summer Olympic Games, and all the others had been as a visitor. So eight times previously, people of other countries had given their time, love and effort to make my Olympic experience special, so now it was my turn! As for why do others volunteer, well there are many reasons, and for some it is just that they want to contribute to society, for others it is that in such an event as the Olympic/Paralympic Games they want to contribute to showing their country off to the rest of the world. Some know they can’t be an athlete, or on the organising committee, but they can be involved in the world’s greatest sporting and cultural festival by volunteering.
You have just launched your volunteer recruitment program here in Beijing, and it is a very exciting time for both the organisers and prospective volunteers. Most of the people who apply will do so for all the right reasons, and will make a wonderful contribution. They will enhance the Olympic experience of athletes, spectators, the Olympic Family and their fellow volunteers. Others may do it for their own selfish reasons, like getting close to international athletes, hoping to see events without buying tickets or to get an Olympic Volunteer Uniform and then not report for duty! Fortunately these people are in the minority, and will never detract from the overall great experience that the majority will enjoy.
The volunteer force which is required for the Olympic/Paralympic Games is like that of a large town or small city, and with it comes all the same idiosyncrasies of that number of people. There will be the honest and some not so honest, the happy and not so happy, some will die and some will give birth! In Sydney we had a driver for the Brasilian Team (based in the Olympic Village) who commenced with the team when the village opened two weeks before the commencement of competition. On the second day he was admitted to hospital, and he died of cancer before the Opening Ceremony, but when I visited him in hospital, his most satisfying comment was “at least I made the Olympics”. On a happier note, we had a National Olympic Committee Assistant train for her position to work in the village one year prior to the Games. However, she fell pregnant and gave birth to her child only days before the opening of the village. She still made the commitment to fulfil her volunteer role, and each day that she was on duty, her husband would bring the baby to the gate of the village for her to breast feed. That is COMMITMENT!
There are so many roles for volunteers, from helping at BOCOG in these years leading up to 2008, to torch relay volunteers in local communities, ceremonies volunteers, and every imaginable position at venues, transport routs, and points of entry and exit from Beijing and other host cities. One of the areas of volunteering which was little known in Sydney was that of volunteer host families for athlete’s families. Many athletes do not know if they have made an Olympic team till maybe only weeks before the opening ceremonies, and as a result it is very difficult for their parents or even coaches to book accommodation at such short notice. This is where host families provide free accommodation to these people. We saw the situation which provided a wonderful opportunity for people of different cultures and possibly economic backgrounds to share the qualities of Olympism.
Something which I think would be a wonderful addition to the Olympic culture is to consider host families for volunteers from out of town (i.e. other parts of China), and out of country, as the expense to volunteers can be a deterrent (time of work, travel, accommodation, additional meals away from home). Providing accommodation by volunteer host families can eliminate the accommodation cost and at the same time provide a positive cultural/friendship experience. Seven times I have been the guest of host families, and it is such a wonderful cultural experience to see the country through the eyes of the people. The host organising committee would not have to devote a lot of resources, but just set up and advertise a website for volunteers and prospective hosts to communicate. One of our experiences was in Korea in 1988, we were not volunteers, but just visitors, and through the Korean Tourist Bureau we arranged to stay with a Korean family. There were three generations living in the one house, and only one could speak a little English, and we could only say “hello”, “goodbye” and “thank you” in Korean. However, the two weeks we shared with that family will be cherished for the rest of our lives, learning about their culture, and cheering for their athletes on television. These experiences have certainly enhanced my Olympic experiences and cultural understanding.
Even the legacy of local friendships developed during the Sydney Olympic/Paralympic experience are alive and well for my lovely wife Barbara and I as we continue to share the memories. During the four years after Sydney and leading up to Athens a group of 40-50 Sydney 2000 Volunteers met in a Greek restaurant every three months to plan for Athens, and many of us did volunteer in Athens. Now we meet every three months in a Chinese restaurant, and are hopeful of being in Beijing in 2008.
Volunteering is very much about what is in the heart, and being a true giver. That is why the first title I thought of for the book on Olympic volunteering was the title I never changed – “Living is Giving – The Volunteer Experience”. There are many moving examples of why the joys of volunteering will stay in the minds of those who shared the experiences. One which was repeated to me by a volunteer at the track and field events was during the Paralympics. The volunteer was working in the area next to the mixed zone where athletes moved to and from the field of play, and made contact with the media after competition. Two young boys were cheering for an Australian athlete who it appeared that they knew. When he was returning after winning the gold medal, the children started climbing the fence to congratulate him. The volunteer said “I don’t know what made me do it, but I assisted them over the fence to greet the athlete. Sure enough my supervisor saw what I did and came straight over to reprimand me. As he was about to do so, the two children, who were now with the athlete both took off their artificial legs and handed them to the athlete to sign. My supervisor stopped in his tracks, and through tears of emotion, said ‘that is what this is all about’. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I did not know that the children had artificial limbs”.
I remember after the financial losses of the Montreal Olympics in 1976 and the major boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980, there were people saying that maybe the Olympic Games should be located permanently in one city (e.g. Athens), and for all competing nations to contribute to the cost. That may have had some cost benefits, but the most exciting thing we would all miss, is the cultural interaction, learning about new countries and showing our countries off to the rest of the world.
I can’t wait to share the Beijing 2008 experience with the people of China, and the important and exciting thing is that the Chinese are putting on the Olympics for the rest of the world. Yes, you will need many different language speakers in order to communicate with and assist visitors and TV viewers from all over the world, but BE CHINESE. We want to see your culture, share your culture and join in your celebration of hosting the world. I think it is wonderful if each host city can learn from the experiences of previous hosts, because it is a special achievement if we can continue to make each Olympiad better than the last, but it is also important that the heart of the people and the nation comes through, and to touch the hearts of your guests.
I will just relate a few stories volunteers shared with me, and I think they will help you understand what is in here (heart) for volunteers:
A volunteer named Damian Keane escorted a member of the Spanish Equestrian Team to the accommodation in western Sydney. On entering the room the visitor’s attention was taken by a child’s painting “Sunset over Uluru” with the greeting “Welcome to Australia”. The visitor longingly stroked the corner of the painting and said “You have spent millions of dollars on venues, you have recruited fifty thousand volunteers, but this is what I will treasure, the memory of a child’s painting”.
A volunteer from the north eastern state of Queensland related the passion and emotion – “I will never forget the first morning I walked over the hill and saw the cauldron and the flame for the first time. It brought a tear to my eye, as I realised that I was about to be part of a two week journey that would be creating history. Every volunteer could be proud as it was announced at the Closing Ceremony that ‘Sydney was the best Games ever’, but nothing could prepare me for what was waiting back home in Queensland for me. I received nothing short of a hero’s welcome when I returned to work. I served as a volunteer yet I was welcomed as a gold medal winner”.
A volunteer from France wrote to me saying “In the volunteers group I worked with, there were many countries represented: Greece, Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Ghana, Austria and France. If the Olympic Games did not exist, we would never have met. To share our own experiences, our cultures, was really worthy and rewarding”.
A farmer named Greg Davies said “I live in the old homestead on a 4,500 acre Poll Hereford Stud Cattle property at the foot of the Snowy Mountains. The thought of nearly half a million people in what we would regard as the creek paddock, horrified me!”
I will give you an example of how when people came to Australia in 2000, they came not only to see great athletic achievement, but to hear and see Australians. The same as we will come to China to hear and learn about the Chinese. One of the Spectator Services volunteers in the main Olympic precinct at Sydney Olympic Park was directing spectators to the venues when an American tourist came up to her and said “Gee thanks, I have been waiting for an Aussie to say G’day”, (our slang for ‘Good Day’), and the volunteer said “I just didn’t have the heart to tell him I was saying Gate A”.
Let me close with a poem written from the heart, by a volunteer whose passion can be felt through these words:
I’ve made it to the Olympics
I always knew I would
It’s taken me so many years
To really get that good
Just think of the excitement
The yells, the claps, the cheers
Making friends from ‘round the world
Memories for years and years
I haven’t done much training
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