Be not afeard:

the isle is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices, that if I then had waked after long sleep, will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming the clouds me thought would open and show riches ready to drop upon me; that when I waked

I cried to dream again.

Introduction

In these pages you will discover what it was like to work as a Games Maker during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The reason for producing this Zine is so that the public can have an insight into what happened during the games and have an idea of the trials and tribulations that the volunteers went through. The highs and lows will be reflected with in these pages and should make for some interesting reading. As you will discover, I worked at the Paralympic sailing event in Weymouth and Portland. So we were outside the main games in London, but became our own separate community. We only had three classes of boats to deal with, twenty seven teams, which totaled out as eighty Paralympic athletes competing in Weymouth and Portland.

PETERHOPTON.GDNM.ORG

Contents

Rearranging training . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Uniform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

A Typical Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Our Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

We Made The Games . . . . . . . . . 20

My Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Good morning and welcome to games makers hotline, how can I help?

Hi, first of all thanks for offering me a place as a Games maker in Weymouth, but I was just wondering if there was any chance of changing venues?

Why do you want to change venues?

It’s because when I wrote my application was before I knew where I’d be going for university and I thought it was going to be on the south coast and close to Weymouth. However as it turns out I’ve ended up at university in the greater London area, therefore it would be a lot easer for me to get to a London event than the sailing in Portland. Any chance that can happen?

I’m a fared not, you’re first choose was Weymouth and Portland and therefore we’ve done our best to make shore everyone gets there first choose.

Rearranging training

Ok fare enough

Is there anything else I can help you with to day?

There is actually, I’ve got my initial training session on a Monday at 4:00 pm in Weymouth, how ever for me to get there I’d have to miss a whole day of university to travel down there and we have an important designer coming in to teach us. Further more because of the timing of it, I’d have to stay over in Weymouth for the night and travel back on the Tuesday, there fore missing another day of university. Is there any chance I could either book an earlier one?

Unfortunately there is only one scheduled for Weymouth, so you’ll have to attend.

But I live in London, any chance I can train with the other games maker’s at Stratford?

Um, yes there is an extra training session over the summer that I can put you on with others who can’t attend their initial training.

That would be great, thanks

No problem, good luck with your training

Thank you very much.

We were given extensive training on how to host a great games which, covered everything that we would ever possible need such as; communication, security, sustainability, health and safety. McDonalds where behind the host training, which made me sceptical as my experience of customer service at

Training

McDonalds has never been that great. However I found the training extremely comprehensive and covered every possible thing that we would need to know. Fortunately all the emergency protocol that we learned were not need as there were no security alerts.

I DO ACT was our way of remembering the key host skills.

I DO ACT

Be Inspirational ‘Behave in a way that inspires others’

Be Distinctive ‘You provide the personal touch - let yourself shine through’

Be Open ‘Be approachable and honest to people’

Be Alert ‘you are the host, so be aware of people’s needs’

Be Consistent ‘Welcome every person as an individual’

Be part of the Team ‘You’re central to a united team - make your mark’

Marshmallows on the Paralympic Flame

Cost to Volunteers

Travel to first training

Return travel ticket from Solihull to Weymouth for venue specific training

Hotel in Weymouth

Cost of Taxi

Return travel ticket from Solihull to Weymouth for Role specific training

Hotel in Weymouth

Petrol cost down to Weymouth

Coast of becoming a YHA member

Cost of WHA for 11 nights

Food for myself

Work based socialising

Taxis back from Weymouth

Petrol home

Total

£8

£105.20

£25

£19.50

£120.60

£35

£45

£8

£220

£60

£40

£10

£30

£726.30

What I ended up paying for myself whiles volunteer at the Paralympic games in Weymouth

Uniform

The majority of volunteers and paid staff wore the classic purpleOfficials; time keepers and organizing committees representatives wore blueNon military security wore greenAmbassadors for the local area, employed by the council wore pinkIndependent contractors wore plane clothing with minimal logos.

The colours and details on the uniform evoke the pride and heritage of the UK, as well as celebrating the best of British sport, history and fashion. The uniform mixes key aspects from modern sportswear to ensure it met comfort and functionality that was required, I found it perfect for the job.

The design of the Games Maker uniform draws inspiration from the heritage and culture of the UK, influenced by the historic Grenadier Guards uniform and British sporting heritage such as the 1948 games, Wimbledon and the Henley regatta, but with a twist that reflects British quirkiness and modern design.

The key features of the uniform include the particular cut of the collar, epaulettes and singular metal buttons. The epaulettes allowed team leaders or medical personnel to affix insignia to there uniform.

The uniform had a deep purple and poppy red colour scheme. The colour combination was based upon a contemporary twist of a regal purple and vibrant Grenadier Guards red. The mix of vibrant and fresh colour provided a distinctive look and allowed Games Makers to stand out in the crowds.

A mixture of the boat crews of marshals and officials enjoying a beer after the last day of racing

WE Made The Games - Transport Team

WE Made The Games - Transport Team

A Typical day in being a games maker , transport team6:30 get up

7:15 eat breakfast

7:15 travel to the venue

8:00 check in at UDAC in the transport office

8:10 morning briefing and allocations of jobs

8:20 go through security check point

8:25 go through workforce check in, get meal vouchers

8:30 go to work force break room, grab a coffee

8:45 head to appointed position, normally a bus stop

9:00 send the first couple bus

9:15 receive the first couple bus

11:00 out of board grab another coffee

1:00 have lunch

2:00 go back to bus stop (afternoon shift starts)

3:00 shift ends

4:00 pub, the cove

5:00 athletes come off the water

8:00 last bus goes from venue to village

10:30 Last Leg

11:30 Bed

Our HighlightsI drove the Olympic medalist windsurfers up from the medal ceremony to their press conferences in a golf buggyDeborah Wrighton

Watching the Aussies vs New Zealanders play Jenga at the paras.... the slinging of funny insultsBrooke Lowman

Having the race Ben Anislie won explained to me by the Norwegian sailor

Watching a repeat of the Paralympic opening ceremony with the Irish, New Zealand and Norwegian teams who were actually took part in it!

Olivia Battistini

Olivia BattistiniTalking at length with the South African sailing coach (at the Cove)....who stated that ours was the best Olympics he’d been to!!Michael Weeks

Sarah Allen

My boy’s (I looked after the Irish para. Team) were serious athletes . . . They were so much fun and can’t wait to hook up with them next year at the world’s . Loved the vibe of the paras A-mazing!Sonia Robins

I remember hearing the message on the radio that there was a ‘swimmer in the water’ at the Nothe, which was momentarily a security worry. Then someone said hang on . . . it’s Nick Dempssey! Bless, got onto the stands for his medal ceremony but was behind a Dutchman with a huge orange wig and Damain T-shirt! All good stuff though!

Brooke Lowman

Brooke Lowman

joining in all the banter at the pub after the Paralympics had finished with the Singapore, Italian and Spanish teams...

Talking to the Irish Paralympic sailor...when one of the Italian team asked us what time the first bus was from the town to the village, he straight away replied ‘5.30am’ and when we asked how he knew, he said it was the bus he’d been getting back to the village in the morning

Giving a very tearful and heartbroken Annalise Murphy the gold IRL bib after she asked to keep itDawn Seymour

Julia Mac Dowell Innecco

Grabbing Aislie’s arm at the lazy lizard. Sleeping at the Argentina team house coz it was late, opening the door to the duchess of Cambridge, Eating the food from the officials boats, making bottle boats because there wasn’t much else to do, stealing all the info of the foreign press when they where interviewing the athletes and then translating all the info to the British one.

In technology we weren’t busy so we found work elsewhere such as helping the Canadians polish their boat.Mark Farries

SecurityThe London 2012 games were extremely overstaffed, It was the largest deployment of security personal for a piece time event since the second world war. We all herd right before the games that the G4S security company had completely underestimated the scale of the security that was needed for the games, they were still trying to recruit new personnel two weeks before the games and people came out of the training saying that it had been shockingly bad! So of course

Theses are just some of the details that we needed to remember when looking at others accreditation, to do with where people are allowed and what privileges that we’re initialed to like our meal and free public transport.

the military presents was stepped up to ensure the security at the games. In Weymouth it was slightly different as the venue was very close to a military base, so majority of security came from military personnel with a hand full of G4S security. Further more the sailing venue and village were free from public, so only people associated with LOCOG were permitted to enter with the right accreditation. Otherwise you’d have to answer to two police men in full body armor with very big guns!

Cardholder’s photo

Cardholder’s infomation

Registration number and barcode

Z o n e a n d stand access codes

Accredition category

Addit ional privileges

Venue and sport access codes

Game specific logo

This accreditation allowed me access to residential area of the Paralympic sailing village and the majority of the venue.

Britain has achieved many great things this summer firstly our Olympic and Paralympic teams have had there most successful times at the games. The natation fell in love with sports that aren’t football related. The Paralympics have been lifted so high that “ Once you’ve put someone on a pedestal you can’t look down on them”, Adam Hills, ‘last leg’. It’s made the public think twice when it comes to people with ‘disabilities’ and this is partly thanks to channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympics , showing them all as people and explaining

what there ‘disabilities’ is, rather than just a numbered reference. But the biggest achievement of the summer is delivering a brilliant games, this is thanks to the 70,000 Volunteers, 7,000 LOCOG staff members, armed forces, emergency services and all the outside contractors used! And the country has recognized the sacrifices that all these people have made for the games and hopefully inspire the next generation of sporting hero’s and volunteers.

We Made The Games

The world and athletes thanked us at the closing ceremony’s, we all received silver batons engraved saying that we had made the games. During the victory parade through London time was taken to thank the volunteers again. We’ve all been given a special qualification in customer serv ice f rom McDonalds, special designed to reflect the work that we have done. Furthermore on the 13th of September every single Games Maker received a letter from the Prime minister thanking us for our brilliant effort and sacrifice during the games.

I’ve shown and told you the things that have happened at the games, but I haven’t given you my personal point of view of how I feel it went! There were many great things that happened and some great memories that I will keep for a very long time, however there were some things that really sucked! I actually found it a really interesting experience because firstly all the people I worked with wanted to be there and were so keen for it, so similar to working in an industry of your choose, but like in the real world there is that person who is a complete idiot who is a nightmare to work with. The volunteer work force was mainly made up of retired locals and a hand full of young people, who have long summers to play with. Further more we were grossly overstaffed, for instance at one point at one of the bus stops (that weren’t at all busy) with two buses we had two team leaders and three team members doing nothing. The reason for having such a high number of staff was that LOCOG said that we needed lots of people, this meant for someone like me only doing two weeks of the Paralympic games there was a lot of sitting about and doing nothing, which was very irritable as I had spent so much money to be there. However as transport team were over staffed, the execs members ended up becoming odd job people work in other parts of the venue, which worked

out quite well. This meant that on the first day I was moving the competitors boats back and forth between their containers and measurement. I ended up working in the press area interviewing the athletes as they came off the water and best of all got to be a crew member on a marshal boat for two days, so got to see the action up close. I ended up living in the local youth hostel, which was right behind the Paralympic village, which meant a ten minuet walk to work every day, which was great. In the youth hostel there were up to eight Games makers living there over the two weeks, which made a brilliant atmosphere to be staying in. There was three of us whom were relatively young, myself and two girls who worked in the medical world and who had recently finished university. These girls were my best friends during the games, even though we did different jobs at the games. We would always made shore that we would wait up for each other at the end of the day and watch the comical program of the Last Leg on channel four together.

I would loved to have done the Olympic games as there would have been more to do, but I loved every minuet of working at the Paralympics and would do it again. I would also encourage anyone to do volunteer work as it’s so rewarding and a great experience.

They say that after the games life can return to normal.

but in all honesty, life will never be the same again and i don’t want it to be.

We Inspired A Generation