Australia’s
biggest event this decade came to Queensland April 2018. Everyone had a chance to get
involved in a once in a lifetime opportunity through volunteering at the Gold Coast
Commonwealth Games as they were in need of 15,000 volunteers.
The 2018 Gold Coast
Commonwealth Games started on 4 April and went through until 15 April. The
event was a sporting spectacle across multiple venues in the state; whilst it does
say Gold Coast; events were also held in Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns,
ensuring that even if you don’t live at or near the Gold Coast, you can join in
too.
Where did the Commonwealth
Games Start? It all began in 1930 where Ontario, Canada hosted 11 nations in
six sports with women only being allowed to take part in swimming. Since then,
Australia has hosted four times, with the Gold Coast being our fifth event. At
the Gold Coast Games we got see 70 nations under the Commonwealth Empire
compete in 10 core sports and 15 optional or recognised sports by the
Commonwealth Games Federation.
Another important aspect
for the athletes is some sports like lawn bowls and netball are not recognised
in the Olympics, so the Commonwealth Games is their only chance to compete for
a gold medal.
So the venture started at the
Commonwealth Games website to start our applications which were due by the end
of March 2017. Some of the positions
that you could apply for were operational support, officiating or recording at
a sport/venue, press and media or hospitality to name a few. It is also
important to know that you had be available to undertake training and be
available either pre, during or post games to assist. I put myself down for the
sport of Basketball, due to playing and coaching for quite a few years, with
Kim put down Basketball first and Gymnastics second. Kim coached at YMCA
and Kindy Gym at PCYC. Why would you just sit at home and watch it on TV? Why
would you not get out and live it, breathe it, smell it and grow with it?
We love learning about
different cultures and we had athletes, officials and visitors from 70
different countries here at the one time. You'd be crazy to miss it!
Commonwealth Games Minister
Kate Jones in late April 2017 officially opened the first operational venue of
the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games at Burleigh Heads which hosted
interviews of up to 25,000 volunteer applicants over the following four months.
Both successful and
unsuccessful application notifications began to roll out from the 27 June 2017.
We were both successful, and needed to go to the Volunteer Selection Centre
(VSC), Burleigh Heads for a formal interview. Inside the VSC, applicants moved
through an ‘excite and educate’ zone which features an overview of GC2018
Vision, Sports and Venues, the Gold Coast, the GC2018 Ambassadors and Local
Indigenous Culture.
Games officials were
overwhelmed with volunteer applications, with more than 47,000 submissions
received from around the state, Australia and World. After going through the
formal selection process at Burleigh Heads, up to 15,000 of volunteers would
receive customised training, specific to individual roles and venues, delivered
by TAFE Queensland.
By end of September we both
were successful in being awarded roles of Festivals for Kim and Basketball for
me.
In October the Games workforce (volunteers, staff and contractors), to be
known as Games Shapers, joined forces for the first time with just 144 days
until the Opening Ceremony. About 4500 members of the Games workforce packed the
Convention Centre that housed the main media centre, basketball finals and
netball at GC2018, for the first of three ‘full house’ sessions. The event also
marked the six-year anniversary of the Gold Coast being announced as the host
city of the 21st Commonwealth Games. The Games Shaper uniform, developed by
Hard Yakka, was unveiled during the first session. Star of the show Borobi the
Official GC2018 Mascot was also given his own bespoke polo shirt to match that
of the workforce.
The entire Game's workforce walked away with a real insight
into the scale of the Games, what training to expect over the next five months,
what we expect of us and an idea of what we could expect at Games time. Games
Shapers make a massive commitment to the success of the Games and sincerely
appreciate the time and energy they put in to ensure athletes, spectators,
media and other key stakeholders have a memorable Games experience.
With only 70 days until the
opening ceremony, we picked up our uniforms and were told “Games Shapers” would
be among the first in the world to see the Opening Ceremony with each volunteer
to be gifted exclusive invitations to two dress rehearsals of the event. So
they could be prepared to kick off the biggest sporting event in Queensland’s
history, GOLDOC will ran two dress rehearsal events at Carrara Stadium, on March
31 and April 2. While the main purpose of the dress rehearsals was to test the
creative and operational elements of the show in front of a live audience, it was
a great way to experience before the Games officially kick off.
Lead up training took place
at TAFE Queensland’s Southport campus and was part of an effort to provide
specialist training alongside Gold Coast 2018. More than 1.8 million pieces of
paper have been saved by providing volunteer training online instead of printed
workbooks for the orientation and role specific training. It is claimed that
360,000 training hours would have been given the volunteers prior to the Games.
In total the 15,000 Games Shapers have over 200 exciting and varied roles
during the Games.
Following the completion of
role specific training, Games Shapers underwent venue specific training in both
online and face to face environments leading up to the Games. Kim caught up
with her Festival volunteers at Broadbeach Surf Club to find out her role,
training and events participating in the Festival.
I underwent venue training
at the Gold Coast Convention Centre and recognized some faces from my time at
Auchenflower Basketball Courts. We were taken back stage to see the court and
practice warm-up area with team locker rooms, showers and ice baths. We were
then split into two groups; Support Services were shown the back of house areas.
The Field of Play volunteers were shown areas of the court they were
patrolling. There are so many things to remember on the Field of Play because
being televised there were rules and regulations that Basketball Queensland had
to follow.
One of the highlights pre -
games was being able to view a dress rehearsal to the opening ceremony. Australia’s
indigenous culture, beach lifestyle and famous music played starring roles. More
than 4000 performers entertained volunteers and family, with indigenous
culture, which dates back at least 65,000 years, a constant theme of the night
amid a series of performances, dances and a didgeridoo orchestra. The
conclusion of the Queen’s Baton relay, promoting diversity and inclusion, were key
themes to the spectacular event. An iconic Kombi van and Migaloo the whale also
featured. Christine Anu, Ricki-Lee Coulter and Delta Goodrem all sang but, with
the exception of Anu, were outshone by a local group who provided orchestral
interpretations of dozens of classic Aussie songs. Anu’s version of My Island
Home, featuring contributions from Torres Strait rapper Mau Power, was perhaps
the musical highlight. Coulter sang Technicolour Love on a traditional Gold
Coast beach scene, while Goodrem helped draw the night to
a close with a rendition of her new single Welcome to Earth. And despite the
wishes of many in the crowd, John Farnham did not appear during a lengthy
version of his classic You’re The Voice.
Games Experience to Follow
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12 Comments
Wow, I've never heard of these games before, but I am in the US so that's probably why. It's amazing to see how much work goes into these big events. And how awesome to be able to help with something so big like this.
ReplyDeleteVolunteering is always a great experience. I had no idea about these games, but everything sounds so exciting!
ReplyDeleteThat is so exciting and amazing. I love going to game and enjoy the pre game / half time ceremonies the most
ReplyDeleteI volunteer around home to try to help! Its a big deal!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like an awesome event there! It's so fun to volunteer for new things!!
ReplyDeletewhat an amazing experience! I am so with you on watching live vs on TV!
ReplyDeleteThis was so interesting to read, I had never heard of the Commonwealth Games before. What a great volunteer opportunity!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great read. I have never heard of the Commonwealth Games so this something new I learned and looked like such a great volunteer opportunity!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fab volunteering project to be involved with. so much fun and excitement x
ReplyDeleteOh how fun...it looks like you had a blast. This looks like such an awesome opportunity!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a fun opportunity and a great cause. Thanks for sharing the experience with us!
ReplyDeleteWhat a grand event this must have been! And a wonderful opportunity for you to be a part of it as well!
ReplyDelete