Volunteers often start their stints before the Games begin. On February 1, UHNews spoke with Sherman Quan, Technical Specialist, UHN, while he was on-shift helping Whistler prepare for the Olympics:
How did this opportunity to volunteer come about?
My brother is the Venue Technology Manager at the Whistler Sliding Centre and brought to my attention the opportunity to apply for a volunteer position.
What exactly is your role?
My official volunteering role is as a Help Desk Level 2 Technician at the Main Media Centre. The Main Media Centre is the central hub for all broadcasting through the games. All broadcasting feeds from all the venues come into and go out of the Main Media Centre. I am on-shift right now and my role is to provide on-site technical support. To better describe it, think of when you put a call into the help desk and the person on the phone can't resolve the problem and so has to escalate to a technician on-site who will physically come to your desk. I am one of those people who will physically come to your desk to resolve the issue. I also fill in wherever necessary to get things done i.e. label phones, make deliveries, etc… It's not rocket science but I am an unpaid volunteer after all!
Why did you want to volunteer?
The Olympics has only been hosted in Canada two other times — Montreal 1976, Calgary 1988 — so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to get involved. Considering I grew up in BC, the Olympic spirit caught me early on so the decision to volunteer was pretty easy for me.
Do you have a favourite sport or Olympian?
Men's Canadian Hockey Team, of course!
