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| Lachlan, a MS student and AOC volunteer, is all smiles for members of the Australian Olympic women's field hockey team. |
Over the summer holiday, WAB hosted the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), which set up an Olympic home-away-from-home on WAB's campus. Each of Australia's 400+ Olympic athletes visited the ES Gym to pick up their official Olympic uniforms and to relax away from the Olympic Village. A dedicated group of over 50 volunteers from the WAB community, including students, teachers, staff, parents, alumni and board members, helped the AOC to transform the ES Gym into a uniform distribution center, complete with dressing rooms (but no mirrors!). With over 140,000 articles of clothing and other gear to unpack, organize, repack and distribute, the volunteers played an important role in helping to outfit Team Australia.
As one of WAB's youngest volunteers, Lachlan, a Grade 5 student, rubbed shoulders with
some of his favorite Aussies, including Laurie Lawrence, Grant Hackett and hundreds of other Australian Olympic athletes, coaches and officials.
Trish Smith, who assisted the AOC with organizing WAB volunteers said,
“Lachlan is having a blast. He even asked me if he could sign up
everyday to volunteer!”
Lachlan's job? Helping to ensure that every Australian Olympic athlete received a properly fitted leather lace-up or peek-a-boo patent leather pump as part of their official wardrobe for the Beijing Olympics. Part of the challenge was keeping track of all those shoes, which ranged in size from 3 - 19.
MS student Guo Hao also volunteered part of his summer vacation to assist the AOC. He described his experience as "amazing," especially because "the athletes were really cooperative and it is very honorable to serve the athletes as a volunteer from WAB for the 2008 Olympic Games held in China. I am very proud to see my hard work appearing on the opening ceremony and the athletes winning."
ES Assistant Principal Amanda Clark also volunteered, along with Phil Clark, MS Assistant Principal. She reported, "I really enjoyed volunteering...it was low stress fun, and two of the people I helped to 'get dressed' won gold medals!" Amanda and Phil helped to outfit Matthew Mitcham (10m platform diving) and Ken Wallace (kayaking).
Several WAB families volunteered together, including the Krebs family, the Grants, the Bissels and the Smiths.
Dinnhe Krebs was delighted to catch a glimpse of one of her daughters walking James Tompkins, the gold medal rower who carried the Australian flag during Opening Ceremonies, to his next station in the uniform distribution center. "Volunteering as a family," she said, "created very cool experiences and memories for the kids!"
ES Library staff members Kelly, Wendy and Ada also volunteered for the AOC. They were so excited about sharing the Olympic spirit that they took annual leave in order to serve as volunteers.
HS student Danesh and '08 Alum Joe came out to school one day to perform for the athletes. A few athletes even joined them for a jam session on their guitars, including the point guard from the women's basketball team!
Many thanks to all of the volunteers who shared the Olympic spirit by assisting the AOC and representing WAB as a Beijing Olympic Education Model School.