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Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-09-20
CONTENTS
[01] Dep. Sports Minister talks on volunteerism to EU counterparts
[01] Dep. Sports Minister talks on volunteerism to EU counterparts
LIVERPOOL (ANA - G. Dimitroglou) - Deputy Sports Minister George
Orfanos on Tuesday stressed the importance of volunteerism in the
success of major sports events, speaking here on the second and last
day of an informal meeting of European Union sports ministers.
In pointing to Greece's experience with last year's wildly successful
Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games of Athens, Orfanos reiterated to
his EU counterparts that the "costs and (massive) investment for major
sports events force organisers to rely, to a great extent, on the
services of volunteers. Otherwise, every event would face an
insurmountable financial problem".
He also underlined that the Athens 2004 Games' success was directly
linked to the excellent performance of volunteers.
To prove his point, Orfanos said more than 45,000 2004 Olympic
volunteers worked in Athens alone, out of an initial pool of 140,000
applicants.
"Over roughly two years we trained our volunteers, conveying to them
the message of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The work was not easy
and many hours along with patience was invested by the Athens
Organising Committee's (ATHOC) staff," he noted.
Finally, he said most foreign volunteers hailed from the United States,
Australia and Italy. "What's also amazing is the fact that we didn't
lose one volunteer during the holding of the Games."
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