2010 Uniforms Unveiled!

Last night I went to the unveiling of the 2010 Olympic & Paralympic volunteers' uniforms. As you can see, the official colour of the uniforms is a beautiful, bright turquoise. The colour is representative of the sea to sky corridor that links Vancouver to Whistler, which are the host city and the host mountain of the games.



Each volunteer with be given 2 long sleeve t-shirts, navy pants, a toque, a jacket and polar fleece vest. The uniform is created for layering, which is typical of how we dress in British Columbia. We have a joke here that goes like this: "If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes." Our weather can change on a dime.



There are 2 types of pants-city and mountain. The mountain pants are lined for warmth for those volunteers that will be working outdoors. The city pants don't have the lining and volunteers working at indoor venues will have those ones.

Here is an example of one of the shirts. I saw two kinds-one was plain and the other had a tone on tone print of the wave pattern that is part of the 2010 logo. He is wearing the city pants.

This guy has on one of the polar fleece vests and the mountain pants.

The Olympic Games symbol is the rings and the Paralympic Games symbol is the agitos. Because both games are completely separate events, there was the need for the uniforms to reflect the identity of each games. They came up with an ingenious way of converting the uniforms. On the back of each jacket are snap fasteners and there is a panel (shown above) that snaps on over top of the Olympic Rings which are printed on the jacket. In addition, there is also a separate patch that will velcro on to switch out the Vancouver 2010 Olympic emblem for the Paralympic emblem!

There's a good shot of the jackets here if you want a closer look.

There is also a backpack made exclusively for the volunteers, which can be purchased if we want one, for $50. (It's optional and the only part of the uniform that isn't free.) It's in blues and greens with the wave pattern on it. The section on the front that has the Olympic rings zips off and again, changes over to the Paralympic agitos symbol.



There are three specific staff groups that have their own unique colours within the uniform, allowing for high visibility. The purple armed uniforms are for anti-doping personnel.

The red armed uniforms with a white cross signify medical personnel.

And finally, the yellow armed uniforms signify events services personnel. The yellow arm is a simple sleeve that just slides up over the t-shirt sleeve and can be removed. This is the uniform I will have!

The pants (both kinds) have lots of big pockets as does the jacket, eliminating the need for a purse, which I am happy about! Footwear and gloves are whatever you choose.

So there you have it! Aren't these great uniforms? I think they were really well thought out in terms of utility, comfort and suitability for local weather conditions. I can't wait to get mine and try it on-that will be happening about a month from now.

When I arrived at the venue this evening, I ran into a good number of my transportation team from the World Police & Fires Games! There were about 10 of us there. Everyone, with the exception of me is working transportation for the Games, but that's perfectly okay-I think I'm going to love what I will be doing. I just thought it was funny that they all signed up to work transpo again!

As an added bonus to my evening, on the way home, I was waiting for the seabus and who should walk into the waiting area and sit down two people over from me but David Suzuki! Of course everyone was staring because in these parts he's a pretty big deal. (West Coasters being tree hugging granolas and all.) He just sat quietly and read his book while we waited. No one bothered him. That made me happy-it was a nice end to my day.

I had a good time last night-I met some new people and I am so excited for the games. As the head of Workforce (the volunteer part of VANOC) pointed out, there are just 17 Mondays left till the games begin! (That got a collective gasp from the audience.) If your wondering how many days from today that is, it's exactly 121 till Feb 12th and the opening ceremonies! I am counting the days!