THE popularity and success of the London Olympics has sparked a surge in interest in volunteering for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Despite recruitment of volunteers not starting until next year, the Glasgow 2014 organisers said there had been a significant rise in enquiries from people wanting to get involved with the event since the Olympics began a fortnight ago.
Up to 15,000 people will be recruited during the Commonwealth Games for a variety of roles including working at the sporting events themselves through to hospitality.
In London, more than 240,000 applied to volunteer, with 86,000 interviewed before the final selection.
Yesterday, the 70,000 Olympic volunteers were praised as having been key to the success of the Games.
Now, the chief executive of Glasgow 2014 said he was anticipating a similar interest north of the Border. David Grevemberg said: "One of the main talking points around the London 2012 Olympics has been the impact the thousands of 'games makers' have had on the delivery of the Games, the fantastic experience they've had and how they've helped create a friendly, welcoming atmosphere throughout the city.
"We are already feeling the positive effects of the Olympic Games here in Glasgow. Since the start of London 2012, we've experienced a significant rise in the number of people contacting us who want to be involved in making Glasgow 2014 a friendly and social Commonwealth Games. Next year we will begin recruiting up to 15,000 volunteers to fill a diverse variety of roles. Not only will these volunteers be involved in the biggest sporting and cultural event Scotland has ever hosted, but will showcase the great hospitality of which Glasgow and Scotland is proud."
The games makers have been one of the big successes of London, with the Chicago Tribune claiming: "Volunteers are the lifeblood of any Olympics but, in London, they've also been its heart."
Lord Moynihan, the British Olympic Association chairman, has even nominated them, en masse, for the sports personality of the year award, saying: "I'd like to put on the record our tribute, our respect."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article