Student sports and student athletes are the basic foundation around which the European Universities Games in Zagreb – Rijeka in 2016 are organized, and the volunteers are the axle which ensures that the entire Games function.
“Volunteering is an investment of free time for personal progress, it’s a contribution to the wider and immediate community, as well as to yourself and to others. It’s not something that is only for your benefit, but for everyone’s “, says Ivana Aničić, the coordinator of volunteers in Zagreb at the European Universities Games Zagreb – Rijeka 2016.
The European Universities Games in Zagreb and Rijeka are the biggest multi-sports student competition in the history of Croatian sport, and there are 1200 volunteers currently taking part in the Games, who make sure everything runs smoothly. More than 170 volunteers came to Croatia from abroad. Foreign volunteers at the Games came from all over the world, from Chile, Argentina and Mexico all the way to Turkey and Australia, but from the neighboring countries as well.
Even though the Games have already started, new people started asking to become volunteers, and Ivana Aničić says she will try to accommodate those interested to join the existing teams, if possible, because they wouldn’t want to reject anybody.
“Motivation is what is important to us. We want people who know the answer to every question, who won’t say “I don’t know”, but will say “I’ll find out, I’ll check it out, I’ll call you “, and who actually get back to you later. That is our goal and we tried to convey it to the volunteers in out trainings because we wanted to show them every part and every aspect of the organization, in order for them to know what we do and how we do it. ‘
If you can find yourself in Ivana’s statement, it is still not too late to sign up to volunteer at the Games, despite the fact that the Games are already in progress.
[Gallery columns = “2” link = “file” ids = “15123,15125,15127,15129,15131,15133,15135,15137”]
