75 volunteer to serve athletes

Poppy Brady, Gleaner Writer

Birmingham, England:

THE clue is in the green, gold and black of their T-shirts - these young volunteers are about to take on an Olympic role supporting the Jamaican athletes, as they begin to arrive in Birmingham.

Up to 75 young people at the University of Birmingham will be on hand to help the track and field squad at the leafy campus, where they will stay for 11 days before heading for London's Olympic village.

"I really feel I am taking part in making history," said 21-year-old Kimberly Walker, who has just completed a geography and geology degree at the university. Originally from Kingston, she moved with her family at the age of 11 to the UK.

"We'll be doing a mixture of roles for the athletes, from acting as attachés, to helping with security and being chaperones for anything they need to do."

Anna Lisa Cleland-Awity, aged 20, who lives in London and is studying history at the university, said: "We feel very honoured to be taking on this role. We imagine the athletes will be very focused on training when they get here, so our job is to make their lives as stress-free as possible."

The volunteers picked up their uniforms from volunteer manager Gary Yates, who explained 120 candidates applied and the 75 who were picked were chosen because of previous volunteer work they had done.

He said: "This is a way of rewarding those for their previous voluntary work. They will all be doing a series of seven shifts each between six and eight hours long. They'll help the athletes in many ways, from general attaché work and security to making sure the starting blocks are all out on the track ready for them.

"The whole of the campus now has a real buzz about it. Everyone is excited about the thought of the world's fastest athletes training on our track here."