Danyon Loader To Honour Masters Games Volunteers

Danyon Loader To Honour Masters Games Volunteers At Closing Ceremony

Double Olympian Danyon Loader will be heading home this weekend to Dunedin where he will be guest of honour at the ACC NZ Masters Games Closing Ceremony on Sunday. As an ambassador for SPARC (Sport and Recreation New Zealand), Danyon Loader will present SPARC Awards to a number of the Games volunteers.

SPARC representative, Ben Hodges, said, “We recognise the importance of volunteers in sport. They are the backbone of community sport in New Zealand. At the Masters Games, the large contingent of volunteers have helped make the Games a great success. Our awards are recognition of the tremendous contribution they make.’’

The spirit of volunteering has been part of Danyon Loader’s own family with his mother Daphne having been a volunteer at the Games Village a number of times.

There are more than 1000 volunteers who make the Games happen. Many of those help out with individual sports and a special team of 130 volunteers is dedicated to assisting the management of the Games.

These volunteers give many hours of their own time to help out with activities such as registration, processing results, helping people buy their photos on-line, giving out sports information and generally playing good hosts to competitors by answering their questions and helping them with directions to venues. Some also help out at venues when extra hands areneeded.

Aaron Joy, Masters Games Manager, says, “The award recipients are all people who have a history of having worked tirelessly for the management of the Games. I think it is fantastic that through SPARC’s initiative their hard work and devotion will be publicly recognised.”

The Closing Ceremony will begin at 7pm at the Games Village on Sunday.

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