Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 8, 1990 TAG: 9007080161
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA A. SAMUELS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Outside the auditorium, however, one volunteer was going through a routine of her own.
"Excuse me, sir, you cannot exist without one of these programs," said 18-year-old Stacy Martin, one of the more than 1,000 volunteers working at the games.
Martin, a rising senior at Franklin County High School, said she was "hooked" into volunteering at the gymnastics competition by her friend, Kendra Newcomb. Martin, Newcomb and Denise Evans, a 15-year-old from Bristol, Tenn., were selling T-shirts, hats, programs and bumper stickers. Other volunteers sold drinks and tickets.
Volunteers are very important to these games, said Nancy Cole, who works with the swimming competition at the Fallon Park pool. As head timekeeper, Cole had to get between 40 and 50 people to help keep the times on hundreds of swimmers, but she said it wasn't difficult.
"People expect to help," Cole said. "Most of the people who volunteer for swim meets have been doing this for years."
The timers were not the only volunteers at the swim meet. Lane Seawell, who was seeded first in two swim competitions before she had to withdraw because of shoulder problems, worked as a sweep judge, writing down the order in which the swimmers finished.
Six-year-old Catherine Turner, a runner, took the results of the swim competitions to the results room, where they are printed out on computers also run by volunteers.
Turner, however, was not even the youngest volunteer at the swim meet. The gate was manned by Parker Ramsdell, 5, David Stinnett, 7, and "Parker Dog," a stuffed animal of unknown age. Parker Dog's job, as explained by Ramsdell, was to alert them when somebody was coming by raising one ear. Both boys have older sisters competing in the swim meet, and both came from out of town - Stinnett from Reston and Ramsdell from Oakton.
Steve Shaffer was at the swim meet, selling swimming equipment and T-shirts that proclaimed such swimming philosophy as "Actions speak louder than coaches" and "Nobody cares less about your ego than a stopwatch." However, he also helped organize the swim meet from his home in Chantilly in Fairfax County. Largely through his efforts, 25 swimmers from Fairfax County are participating in the meet.
Newcomb's sister, 13-year-old Kelli, is a volunteer as well as a competitor in the gymnastics competition. As a "flasher," Kelli Newcomb flashes the scores of the competitors to the audience.
Kendra Newcomb joked that the gymnasts served as flashers and gofers - taking scores from the judges to the flashers - so the judges will remember them and give them better scores when they compete. However, not all of the volunteers have such a personal stake in the games.
The Skyline Girls Scouts, an association of Girl Scout Troops covering more than 37 counties in Virginia and West Virginia, have 100 girls working with registration and the track and archery competitions.
Lifeguards from the Roanoke Country Club were timers for the swim meet. And at every other sporting venue, unpaid workers were helping to make things run more smoothly for the thousands of athletes competing.
Sovran Bank sent volunteers to different events. Bill Shawcross, from Sovran's downtown Roanoke office, said he wanted to work "wherever anybody else didn't want to go . . . and indoors." He ended up at the gymnastics competition.
"I think it's wonderful, the spirit of volunteering here," Cole said.
by CNB