Prince George, B.C. – Praise today for the roughly 4,500 Canada Winter Games volunteers.

Volunteer workforce manager Christine Nicholls says not only has the first week and a half gone really well, but she’s already hearing stories of volunteers going above and beyond the call of duty.

Christine Nicholls looks over volunteer list – photo 250News

“We have volunteers here who are driving people to where they need to go. You would never ask a volunteer to do that but people step-up and into a place of being a really good host,” she says.

However, her favourite story involves a member of Ontario’s wheelchair basketball team.

“There was a young lady that some volunteers met at the Civic Centre where they were working. A wheelchair athlete from Ontario and they befriended her. Every morning she came in for breakfast they’d say hi and when they found out when she was competing and when they were off shift they went to cheer her on and every time she touched the ball they chanted her name (Emily),” says Nicholls. “And her parents were sitting behind them trying to figure out how do all these people know my kid?”

She likens the volunteers to being ambassadors for the city.

“Big ambassadors because you know what, they’re really putting Prince George on the map, everything we’re hearing from Canada Games Council, the Mission staff, the athletes, the parents, they’re just so moved by how Prince George has greeted them.”

And to show their appreciation, the Games will hold their second volunteer recognition night this Friday.

“So we invite them here to the Volunteer Centre. Provide them with pizza, get them geared up with green glow sticks. Mayor Lyn Hall, MLA Shirley Bond, and Games Host Society Chairman Anthony Everett. We walk them into the plaza where they’re greeted by the athletes. They’re thanked and shown a picture reel of things that happened the first week.”