Algonquin pitches in at World Juniors

By Michael Mellon

mell0032@algonquincollege.com

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Hockey Championships, held in Ottawa between Dec. 26 and Jan. 5, brought close to 400,000 tourists to the area thanks to the more than 1,500 volunteers who helped organize the tournament.

Many of the volunteers and people involved with the tournament have ties to Algonquin.

Jim Kyte, professor and co-ordinator of Algonquin’s sports business management program, acted as co-director of the volunteer division of the tournament. One of his many duties included the selecting and training of the tournament volunteers. He was just one of the many who helped organize the tournament and ensure its success.

 “Volunteering [for the tournament] was a great opportunity, but it comes at an expense,” says Kyte, “[The volunteers] gave up their time during a special period of the year.”

Kyte says that throughout the whole tournament there were only six paid positions and out of those six, four of the people in those positions had ties to Algonquin.

Another member of the Algonquin community, Graham Pelletier, 21, who is in his second semester of the sports business management program and in his third year at Algonquin, has been interning with Hockey Canada since October.  One of Pelletier’s responsibilities was to promote the tournament, emphasizing the ‘Ten teams, 31 games, one city’ slogan.

“It was a great experience,” Pelletier said, “anyone you see on TSN, I’ve hung around with and met them.”

To thank the over 1,500 volunteers, a volunteer appreciation party took place in the cafeteria of Algonquin on Friday Jan.,  9.

The night’s festivities included a live band, door prizes including Team Canada autographed sticks, jerseys and hats. In a pre-recorded video message, Eugene Melnyk, chair of the host organizing committee and owner of the Ottawa Senators, also expressed his thanks to the many volunteers.

Two of the Royal Bank of Canada’s Olympians, Michael Woods and Jeff Bean,  who are scheduled to be torch bearers in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, were also in attendance.