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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.
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| 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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