SSE Airtricity's Regulation Manager Fiona Hannon (winning centre) looks back at her two weeks as an SSE ‘Clydesider’ volunteer at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
With a spectacular display of fireworks, music and dancing the CWG2014 launched into action and the event I had spent six months training for was on. The opening ceremony set an incredible standard, one which the rest of the games more than lived up to.
Now, sitting at my desk, I can say it was one of the most challenging, fun and rewarding experiences of my life. When I signed up to volunteer at the Commonwealth Games over 18 months ago little did I know what I was letting myself in for. The Glasgow I had visited for training days was transformed for the Games with flags on every street, temporary stages, events all over the city, and perhaps most importantly, an army of ‘Clydesider’ volunteers helping to create a festival atmosphere in every sporting venue, and across the city.
For my part, as a team leader in spectator services, while my role couldn’t have been more different from my day-to-day job in the Regulation team, the SSE values of safety, service, efficiency, sustainability, excellence, and teamwork couldn’t have been closer to the core of what we achieved at the Games. I was one of the lucky staff members to be sponsored to volunteer at the games by SSE and I was proud to step up to the mark to play my part in creating one of the most spectacular and successful sporting events in the world.
From the heat and excitement of the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome, the precision of the badminton at the Emirates, to the roar of the crowd at Hampden Park every shift provided lasting memories of records broken, smiling faces and wonderful people to work with.
I high fived hundreds of kids with my big green foam hand, directed thousands safely to their destinations, met people from over 50 countries, watched some amazing sports, and I’m pretty sure I walked five hundred miles (we certainly sang about it repeatedly)!
Back in Dublin the excitement of the last two weeks feels like it is slowly wearing off but I’m sure the memories will keep me going for months to come. In the words of an expert on these things:
‘Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.’
-Dr. Seuss.
