The number of 270 people signed up as volunteers for the Triathlon World Series Grand Final, which will be held in Pontevedra from September 20 to 24, has already been reached. The minimum number of participations necessary to guarantee the normal organisation of the event was therfore reached.
The sports organisation of the event calculated 544 posts that need to be covered by volunteers throughout the event, so if each volunteer covers 2 of those posts (and most are willing to cover 4 or 5 various posts) the organisation will have largely guaranteed the coverage of each post needed.
Although the campaign is taking place mainly in the city of Pontevedra, where the vast majority of people come from, there are requests from other places in Galicia, Spain and the rest of the world, such as three people from Japan who want to make the slogan of campaign, “Lend them your hands.”
The volunteer system is organised by the city’s Volunteer Office, Ofivol, an entity that collaborates with major sporting events and has demonstrated its ability to participate in a major operation to provide service to the thousands of people, especially athletes, who will need help in the different sections of the event. Its database, with 800 people, is fundamental to stimulate these voluntary and selfless collaborators.
To organise their work on the ground, the volunteers’ platform has an operational structure of about 20 people in coordination and responsibility tasks, who manage the work in the different specialties (logistics, protocol, support for athletes, registration, etc.).
As the date approaches, more people will join, as has happened on other occasions. In addition to the people who sign up individually, there are volunteers who come from public defense bodies, such as the Military Naval Acadamy, Brilat, the penitentiary center of A Lama or the social entities of the capital Xuntos and Xoán XXIII. It is hoped that at the beginning of September it will be possible to count on people linked to the Official Language School, especially the students of the more advanced courses since they can be particularly useful at an international championship.
Once all places are filled, they will stop taking volunteers. However, Ofivol will keep the applications open in case it is necessary to have more people than initially planned.
This formidable response from the citizens and the urban structures of collaboration and help, speaks once again of the enormous power of the city when it comes to facing organisational challenges as relevant as the huge celebration of World Triathlon.
