Kazan 2013 volunteers hone their skills at Koresh and belt wrestling test event

30 young people from regional Kazan 2013 volunteer centres have completed their training at the All-Russian University Koresh and Freestyle Belt Wrestling Competitions. The Chuvash Republic, Perm Territory, Chelyabinsk Region, and Saint Petersburg sent their own delegates to participate in the test event. 4 teams of volunteers arrived in Kazan the day before competitions in order to undergo training and to familiarise themselves with the venues and roles they were going to perform for the next 6 days.

“The participation of Russian volunteer centres in our test events is always a memorable event - for us, for the Organising Committee, and for the volunteers themselves,” noted Alexander Karpov, Director of the Volunteer Department. “On the one hand, by organising these trainings, we hone the mechanisms by which volunteers from other cities are managed at the competitions: today we have to bring in, meet, house, and feed 30 people, but in three months, it’ll be 5,000 people. On the other hand, regional centres strive to send their own activists so that these boys and girls could see with their own eyes and experience first-hand how large sporting events are organised, as well as learn what principles Kazan 2013 volunteers follow in their work and how well-prepared they are. What’s more, these youth are full of emotions and impressions, they bring a breath of 'fresh air', spread it to the masses and repeatedly reinvigorate Russian youth’s interest in participating in the Summer Universiade in Kazan! We have a series of test events before the Games and that means that boys and girls from regional Kazan 2013 volunteer centres will continue their internship!”

Non-local volunteers were able to try their hand at various positions across an array of functional areas, such as Transportation, Spectator Services, Sport Production, etc. “We’re ready to help wherever we’re needed, to try as hard as possible, to go to the max!” Yulia Leushkanova, a Kazan 2013 volunteer recruiter from the Chelyabinsk Region, said excitedly. “We are representing Chelyabinsk on this internship in a small team - there are only five of us. We want to bring a truly worthy team to the Summer Universiade because competition for spots on the volunteer delegation is really high. Choosing only 100 most motivated candidates from all the applications wasn’t an easy task.”

It's worth noting that only a few are lucky enough to get on the regional team and undergo training in Kazan before the 2013 Summer Universiade; this opportunity falls upon the most active volunteers of the region. These boys and girls have volunteered for years, have community service experience, and have participated in numerous projects and dozens of events on both all-Russian and worldwide levels. Olesya Shumkova of Saint Petersburg remembers her each internship in great detail despite a respectable 3-year volunteer experience. “In the time that I’ve dedicated to volunteering, I have been able to try out completely different areas and work in many positions. You remember each event – they’re all rich in their own stories, their own little quirks, emotions, and surprise encounters. Even now, in these 5 days when we became like a family, a new story was born.”

Hospitality from Kazan colleagues - volunteers, team leaders, volunteer managers - was one of the best memories for those arriving to their internship. Filipp Krasnov, one of the ten delegates from the Perm Territory, got his first sport volunteering experience on his internship in Kazan. “The care, the smiles, the sincerity that’s felt, that’s what I get here. We put together a friendly team and great results soon followed!”  Filipp is a well-rounded individual. He is simultaneously receiving two university degrees, goes in for sport and tourism, and has his own small business. Not surprisingly, for his work at the Summer Universiade this upcoming summer, Filipp chose a position on the “SWAT-team” - the volunteer who knows how to do it all.

The Universiade Village where the non-local volunteers stayed during their training impressed the guests most. “This is a place where you want live and study, do sport and create, where the best conditions have been made for this,” said Ksenia Aleksandrova, a Kazan 2013 volunteer from the Chuvash Republic's volunteer centre and participant in several internships at the Sochi 2014 Olympics. In their free time, the volunteers were able to see Kazan, visit a few Universiade venues and go shopping for souvenirs to bring home not just a unique experience, but small tokens of their internship in the capital of the Summer Universiade 2013. It’s these very people who stand to make the Games happen in already 90 days.

As we earlier reported, similar trainings for representatives of regional Kazan 2013 volunteer centres will continue in the months to come. Volunteers from the Sverdlovsk, Kirov, Penza, Orenburg and Samara Regions, as well as young activists from the Republics of Udmurtia, Mari El, and Bashkortostan, Primorye Territory, and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area will come in the host city of the 2013 Summer Universiade to receive training before the World University Games. In total, 275 young people will be able to take part in test events and see Kazan during the preparations for the Games.