THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 22, 1996 TAG: 9607220142
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
from Atlanta
LENGTH: 61 lines
When buses are late and tempers short, her job is to pacify sports writers and broadcasters who may be grousing in a dozen different languages.
``I tell them, `Next bus in six minutes,' '' she says, ` ``but don't hold your breath.' ''
It's that way every day at the Main Transportation Mall, where Suzanne Saunders of Temperance, Mich., is a volunteer.
She is on her feet under a hot tent. She carries a walkie-talkie. On this day, it took her 2 1/2 hours to commute by train from her nieces apartment near Stone Mountain.
Welcome to one woman's Olympic experience.
Oh, by the way, she is loving it.
``I'm 60 years old. I'll never get another chance to be part of an Olympics,'' said Saunders.
Suzanne Saunders could be you. You could be here in Atlanta, too, sharing the Olympic experience as a volunteer at a dusty bus depot.
Or you could be sleeping on a gym floor like Chad Martin, a 23-year-old security officer from Fort Dodge, Iowa.
You could be volunteering at the water polo venue with Steve Budrick, 38, of Boston, and bedding down at Morris Brown College.
``The area is terrible,'' Budrick said. ``We've gotten many warnings about not walking outside the building at night, but when you work until midnight, that's pretty tough.''
There are approximately 45,000 volunteers toughing it out at the Olympics. Most are from the Atlanta area. But thousands have flown or bused or driven here from around the country.
For their trouble, they are given khaki shorts and two or three colorful golf shirts. Or dark green trousers and a crisp white shirt with patches on the sleaves identifying them as security.
They are fed once a day. When they leave here, the volunteers will see box lunches in their dreams.
``Sandwich, cole slaw, apple ... and all the Coke we can drink,'' says Colin Kennedy, a Virginia Tech grad from Reston.
Several hundred yards away, Linda Kizzart of Hampton was taking information from a visitor who had fallen and bruised his hand. Kizzart, a teacher at Yorktown Middle School, volunteered as a medical clerk at a first-aid station.
``I want to take this experience into the classroom to share with the children,'' she said.
Experiences differ, of course. Fifty bus drivers, people who were getting paid, have just quit. One driver said her Olympic experience was ``a horror story.''
In general, the transportation situation is a mess.
None of this is the fault of the volunteers, who are proving so far to be as tough as the conditions.
Sharene Beckles, 18, of Queens, N.Y., was directing pedestrian traffic outside the International Broadcast Center. Has she had a chance to watch any actual sports?
``We work 15 hours a day,'' she said. ``We don't have time.''
Suzanne Saunders thought she'd be stationed at Emory University, where she could at least help track and field athletes to their buses.
But no. She's stuck with the media wretches. by CNB