Sylvie Paillard
[email protected]
The Chamber of Commerce will have an opportunity to learn from the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy thanks to a multi-tasking 2010 committee member.
From Tuesday (Feb. 7) to Monday Feb. 13, the dean of Capilano College's Squamish campus, Casey Dorin, will soak in as much of the atmosphere and collect as much information as possible for both his roles as a Squamish representative and a Capilano College representative.
"In both cases, since before the games were even announced, Ian Tait from the bid process got us all motivated," said Dorin. "I got really involved in looking at opportunities since the very, very beginning."
Dorin will visit Susa, a town the size of Squamish that is positioned between Olympic venues.
"One of my main tasks includes going to this community and seeing how they are getting involved and I'm going to see how that's applicable to Squamish," said Dorin. "I'm hoping to present this information and get energized and try to see some potential for the community and spread that word around for the college and the community."
Dorin also intends to take advantage of the Sport Event Hosting and Training Destinations at B.C.-Canada House, which will be attended by sports federations from around the world.
"I've been working with the college and the Sustainability Corp. with the Chamber of Commerce in Squamish to get together a really attractive package that I'll be handing out and giving to these sports bodies with the idea that they'll come here and train in the run up to games," said Dorin.
"So I'm pretty excited about that."
As the 2010 coordinator for the college, Dorin will continue the work Capilano implemented immediately after the bid announcement. The college has organized educational opportunities under the banner Educate, Participate, Celebrate.
"It's primarily focused around getting our students phenomenal learning opportunities before, during and after the games," he said.
One of Dorin's primary goals during the visit is to see how Italian post-secondary education facilities are getting involved in the games and primarily how the students are going to be involved in the games.
"Are the colleges closing?" he said. "Do they have arts and cultural festivals going on? What are the students doing and the facilities themselves?"
The trip is only five days long, so Dorin doesn't expect to see many of the competitions, but he said it would be "really cool" to check out the opening ceremony.
"Really I'm just trying to soak in the atmosphere and I just heard that there's something special during the Olympics and I want to experience that."
