BIRKDALE mother of three, Tanya Lambinon is a self-proclaimed sports fanatic and will have a front row seat to all of the action volunteering in Spectator Services at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Ms Lambinon is a sports tragic; she simply lives and breathes sport. An avid swimmer, netballer and triathlete, she also spends weekends playing taxi, ferrying her children to swimming events, soccer and netball and rugby union games.
Ms Lambinon said she jumped at the chance to become a volunteer once she learned of the Games volunteering opportunities.
“I wanted to set an example for my family about the importance of being an active community member and showing support for Australia,” she said.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn and experience what goes on behind the scenes at such an enormous event.
“The training has been extremely helpful and I have met some fantastic people along the way. The entire experience is going to be something that I will remember forever,” she said.
Based at Coomera Indoor Sports Centre, she will be assisting spectators at netball finals and artistic and rhythmic gymnastics events with ticketing, seating and general spectator support and assistance.
“This is my first experience volunteering and it’s a wonderful way to get involved and be part of something really amazing,” Ms Lambinon said.
“It’s pretty nerve-racking to think that we’ll be working to support an estimated 1.5 million spectators across the state.
“Thankfully I’ve completed my volunteer training at TAFE Queensland and feel confident that we will make it a great Games for everyone,” she said.
A Senior Marketing Officer at TAFE Queensland, Tanya knows just how vital and complex the ground breaking GC2018 volunteer training program is.
“In total the 15,000 volunteers have completed about 360,000 cumulative hours of training in over 200 exciting and varied roles across 24 locations and venues in Cairns, Townsville, Brisbane and the Gold Coast,” she said.
The games start Wednesday April 4.
Volunteers:
- ·GC2018 runs from 4-15 April 2018
- 15,000 volunteers at Games time
- 360,000 hours of volunteer training from TAFE Queensland
- The youngest volunteer 16 years
- Oldest volunteer 92 years
- More than 85 per cent of volunteers are from South East Queensland
- 18 competition venues from Cairns to Coolangatta
- ·24 volunteer venues including the Commonwealth Games Village and Games Family Hotel
- ·Over 200,000 pieces of individual clothing designed and developed by Hard Yakka
- ·150,000 meals for volunteers
- ·18 sports plus seven integrated para-sports
- · One million volunteer hours required
- · More than 50 medical facilities across Games venues
- · 84,000 medical volunteer hours
- · More than 1,500 medical volunteers
- · 11 days of competition
- · Up to 1.5 million spectators
- · 6,600 athletes and team officials
- · 70 nations and territories will compete in the Games
- · Promote the Gold Coast to a 1.5 billion cumulative global TV audience
- · 1,000 hours of sport