Twenty-one volunteers from Russia will travel to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics as part of an effort inspire a volunteering culture in the host country of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
The volunteers, drawn from 17 Russian regions, will learn about Canadian culture and the history of the Olympics, and experience the Canadians’ hosting skills first hand and be involved in aspects of the Games, including the opening ceremony.
President and chief executive of Sochi 2014, Dmitry Chemyshenko, said he hoped their experience would inspire “a mass volunteering movement in Russia”, after expressing concern that the culture of volunteering in Russia was not as developed as that in other Olympics host countries.
The 2014 Winter Olympics, at the Black Sea resort of Sochi in Russia, requires 75,000 volunteers.
