Monday, December 7, 2015

SGR Hears Successes of the HWSG's


CEO Kyle Case told members of SGR today, "the 29th Annual Huntsman WORLD Senior Games can best be described as immense and immensely successful!"  What began in 1987 as a way to increase lodging in area motels in the off-season has now become the largest annual multi-sport event in the WORLD! 

On its way to world domination, the Games – with 27 sporting events and an 80 percent return rate - continues to have representation from all 50 United States and over the years from 73 countries.  In 2015, there are 10,560 senior athletes from 20 countries - including for the first time Iran, Lithuania and Saudi Arabia – registered to participate.  All that remains to achieve this milestone is the recruitment of competitors from Greenland, Argentina, any country in Africa and a handful of nations here and there around the globe. 

When this year’s Games concluded on October 17, planning for next year’s began again after a one-day break and there will be, once again and quite literally, a million details to manage.  There are countless hours of planning and dozens of board and staff meetings during the twelve months between the Games to discuss such issues as safety, talent for two opening ceremonies, awards, making sure a system is in place to track the number of years each athlete has attended and for reporting results, ordering medals, scheduling hundreds of teams and thousands of individual competitors, sign-ups and registration, sponsorships, keeping the website fresh and updated, graphic design changes, insurance claims, finances and budgets, going digital to provide easy accessibility of information around the world and planning for the Global Cup, which this year will feature women’s volleyball teams from German, Canada and the United States. 

Rotary donations for the Veterans Home in Ivins
Then there are the more finite issues of merchandising, socials, seating and parking, soliciting advertising from local businesses to be inserted into nearly 11,000 welcome bags; transportation, pick-up and delivery of supplies and participants, set-up and take-down … even the color of shirts for staff, chairman and those vitally important 2500 volunteers, who work tirelessly to provide thousands of hours of service to make the event memorable for participants and spectators.

The Games economic impact to the St. George area community is $15,767,763 million.  Kyle states, their needs include more qualified volunteers to oversee the results of play for 900+ participants in this sport.  Softball is the biggest of the sports - with 340 teams and about 4000 participants.  

In 2016, the Games will celebrate its 30th year and in 2017 plans are in the works for travel to New Zealand for the world masters games.  Sometime in the future, Kyle notes, "it will be time to build our own building and begin developing an Endowment Fund."  Wanna help, Rotarians?


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