I find my self wearing a piece of my smurf outfit ever day... not all at the same time...cause this I had to do for four weeks straight. But just one piece at a time... my hat for my spring ski out in the Gatineau Park, my vest when sitting at my desk and yes my lovely blue rainjacket with the Olympic rings registered on the back walking to the grocery store...cause I'm so proud to have been a Volunteer at the Olympics !And you would be amazed how many people notice and say hey, 'what was your volunteer job ?' and... 'I too was there' - or ' You guys worked so hard' - or ' I was glued to the TV set for two weeks straight and am now in Olympic withdrawls'... and I say "me too!"
I can't believe it's over.
The Paralympics were my Olympic addiction slow return to normal life...my daily chats with Dirk who was still out-west grooming helped immensely. Now he too is coming home after a very long two months of continuous work. Dirk just called me from one of Vancouver2010's legacy's...the 'Sky-train'. He took it from Richmond after having returned his VANOC truck and was heading to the airport for the red-eye flight home. Tomorrow will be our first time together as a family in two months...Katrina is also home from down-under where she was training for her whitewater kayak sport. Stefani held the fort here on First Av - and I must say did a fine job that of course included 'watering' my plants, snow removal, garbage out on the curb on Tuesdays and with the recyling tossed many items I never had the heart to 'throw-out' - cause she could !
Skiing in the Gatineau Park last weekend, I met up with fellow Banana Ski teammate of my youth - aka southern Ontario skiing nickname of the time... Dan Mallet, whom I had heard had a key role with Olympic medals. He too was in major Olympic withdrawals. And after hearing his story, now I know why.
Dan headed up the mint's medal creation team for the past 2 years, and was physically at the end of the 7 hour line-up in downtown Vancouver where the public was not only able to see the medals upfront, but have their photo taken wearing one...and able to ask Dan and his team how they were made, designed and the inspiration behind these beautiful pieces of hardware. Dan told me that he personally spoke to over 40,000 people. He also mentioned that the mint made 690 medals for the Olympics and 300 for the Paralympics. Wow ! 
The Mint here in Ottawa still has these beauties emblazoned on it's outer walls with line-ups heading in this past weekend...I hope I too get to see a copy in weeks to come. Perhaps a personal tour from Dan, to help him get over his post-Olympic-blues ! That is...if he reads my blog :)
This just arrived in my inbox from Susan Denny ...our energetic leader from Comox Valley aka Mt Washington, BC ski terrain - fast and female Marshal 1 :
WHAT a TEAM !
I believe I have thanked most of our team members personally on your great efforts “on course” but as I missed a few of the gatherings at the end of the Paralympics I would like to take the time to share some thoughts and thank everyone once again .
I have c.c.’d the chiefs and others as the Olympics and Paralympics as we know becomes a huge team effort .
Our course marshal teams certainly appreciated the good spirits and help from the other areas.
I think Mike Edwards, had a few smiles on some days when he saw how well his 5 areas ( transportation, forerunners, course marshals , course marking and grooming ) came “in sink” and worked as “a course team” . Maybe some days we interpreted some commands upside down and backwards but in the end we pulled off what we needed to J Thank you from our whole team to Course 1 and Course 2’s ( Mike, Jonas and Shawn)
A Big thank you to Nicola, John and Audra.
A Big Thank you to Christine , Lo , Claudia and Harriet ( Marshal #2 ‘s) – for starting our teams off on the early days and finishing with spunk , enthusiasm and energy to the end.
For the rest of you , wow; you were all great !
Everyone’s journey to these events and during was different ; some learned lots ; some of you contributed a great deal to the team . What a legacy we have created for B.C. and
The best was arriving each morning a seeing smiles at 7:00 am raring to go out onto the FOP to create a safe environment for the amazing and inspiring athletes.
Continue to share your stories and photos everyone.
All the best,
Susan Denny
Course Marshal #1
We had quite a group from the Ottawa Region working at Cross Country... too busy to get us all together, but we did manage one photo of the Nakkertok contingent at our final Feb 28th celebration.
I'll close today with a shot that really summarizes my amazing job: front row seats - TRACKSIDE2010 !
Hope you too continue to wear you're prized red mittens - something that will keep us all remembering this incredible event put on by Canadians in Canada !
IF keen to learn more and relive the Paralympics, here is a superb U-tube site: http://player27.narrowstep.tv/nsp.aspx?player=ParalympicSportTV#ns_dummy_link
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