WITHIN 12 hours of applications opening to be volunteers at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, more than 10,000 people had applied.
Anyone who wants the chance to play their part in the sporting festival that will be "a global show-reel for the city" in the words of Lord Smith of Kelvin has until February 28 to apply. But the level of enthusiasm on the first day provides early evidence that Glasgow intends to demonstrate its legendary friendliness to the world.
The Games organisers are talking of the biggest peace-time deployment of volunteers in Scottish history. That will take considerable organisation and the right mix of people including those with specialist medical or sports skills, but one of the lessons of the London Olympics and Paralympics last summer was that the relaxed, happy atmosphere was largely due to smiling, helpful gamesmakers.They were the key to ensuring large numbers of people all reached their destinations at the right time and small problems were sorted out. And their enjoyment at being part of the great event was obvious.
That has given Glasgow 2014 a great template for its own friendly force of volunteers but if the Olympic gamesmakers managed to change London into a city where strangers spoke to each other, visitors to Glasgow, where friendliness is the default setting, are likely to be treated as long-lost buddies.
As the process of selecting 15,000 volunteers gets under way, it is important that a wide variety of people apply. The Big Lottery Fund and the Scottish Government have provided a £500,000 funding programme so that people who would otherwise be unable to volunteer because of financial problems can take part in what will be a great community event as well as an international sporting competition. This will provide a real opportunity for young people, especially those who have been unable to find employment, from some of the poorer parts of the city to get involved. The 2014 organisers will invite 25,000 applicants for interview in April. Young hopefuls, who must be over 16, should not be put off by such daunting numbers. Sports clubs, schools, friends, family and employers should all encourage young people to seize what could be a life-changing experience. Meeting people from all over the world and being part of a global event would enhance anyone's cv but meeting people of all ages from a variety of backgrounds will also add immeasurably to the visitors' enjoyment of Glasgow's Games.
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