Let me start by saying that an event like the Scott Tournament of Hearts is a great event for our city to host. I am proud to say that my wife has selflessly used up a week of her holiday time (which could be used for her own enjoyment i.e.: somewhere warm in February) from her job in order to volunteer as a driver for this event.
This dedication to ensuring a smoothly run event is shared by all who volunteer for such things, as well as a cost for the uniforms that identify these volunteers and separate them from the general public.
While I understand that someone has to pick up the cost for those uniforms, I really am puzzled as to why my wife has to spend another $50 for an onsite parking pass for the week. She can choose not to pay and park offsite, which would mean she would have to walk about the distance of at least three city blocks on icy streets and sidewalks to and from the Centrium. Why does the venue hosting this event feel that they need to make money off of the volunteers by charging them to park their vehicles onsite while they give of themselves so the public can enjoy a well organized tournament? I am sure there are other volunteers out there who help at such events that feel the same way. Stand up and be heard!
This is a blow to the spirit of volunteering, and I think that it is horribly wrong when volunteers are required to pay the host venue for onsite parking when the venue clearly reaps the largest financial gains from these events. Do they realize what might happen if they didn’t have enough volunteers and they might actually have to start paying people a small wage to attract enough help, let’s say $50 for the week? It takes about 1,500 volunteers to host an event like this, so do the math and figure it out. Instead of taking in about $7,500 from volunteers, they might actually have to pay that out. So maybe they should be reasonable about it, meet the volunteers halfway, and nobody should have to pay!
Collin Germain
Red Deer