When Jillian Christie decided to help out at the 2010 Winter Olympics, she quickly discovered it can be a feat to try to work for free.
It took Ms. Christie just an hour to land herself a paid job in fashion marketing at the Hudson's Bay Co., she says, but she has already devoted almost 12 hours to applying to be an Olympics volunteer and she still doesn't know if she'll get a spot.
Not that she's complaining.
Ms. Christie, a 23-year-old resident of Kingston, Ont., says she's willing to jump through any hoops to be part of the Olympic Games. So far, she has filled out an online application, completed a phone interview and driven to Toronto for a face-to-face interview and basic training.
Next, Ms. Christie says, she's planning to take a leave from work without pay, fly to British Columbia at a moment's notice, couch surf in Whistler for several weeks and accept any volunteer position available.
"Even if I'm just loading people onto buses for 12 hours a day - that would be fine," she says.
With one year to go before the Games begin, thousands of aspiring volunteers are organizing their lives around the Olympics without any guarantee they'll be needed. More than 60,000 people have filled out online applications for 25,000 volunteer positions, according to Donna Wilson, executive vice-president of work force and sustainability for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC).
The vast majority of applications are from Canada, Ms. Wilson says.
"Canadians are willing to give their time, and we are so fortunate for that, because I didn't see it in Italy," she says, referring to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Volunteers must commit to 13 shifts at the Olympics and seven shifts at the Paralympics. Each shift lasts eight to 10 hours, Ms. Wilson says.
The most coveted volunteer positions include greeting international guests and working in the athletes village, she says.
But few jobs have even a smidgen of glamour. Most volunteers will perform duties such as parking cars, taking tickets and dealing with disgruntled spectators. One job consists of watching the Olympic flame so it doesn't burn out.
The majority of applicants won't get their assignments until April at the earliest, Ms. Wilson says, and some volunteer positions won't be offered until just before the Olympics.
The uncertainty doesn't deter Olympic hopefuls such as Carole Hunt-Ford of St. Joseph Island, Ont.
Ms. Hunt-Ford, a high-school phys-ed teacher, says she wants to volunteer at the games with her 15-year-old daughter, Caray, who may be eligible for VANOC's youth volunteer program.
In preparation, Ms. Hunt-Ford has already booked a semester off from teaching in 2010. Her daughter will miss school during the Games and the two will stay with friends in Whistler, she says.
The mother-daughter team will do anything to support Canadian athletes, Ms. Hunt-Ford says, "even if it's scrubbing toilets and changing beds at the Olympic village."
That won't be necessary, according to Ms. Wilson of VANOC, since most cleaning and waste-related jobs will be contracted out.
Nevertheless, volunteering in areas such as event services can get tough, Ms. Wilson says. If a port-a-potty falls over, for example, "that event services person is going to deal with that," she says.
There are perks, however. All volunteers will receive a specially designed uniform, commemorative pins and meals during shifts. Organizers are planning social events for volunteers, as well as a recognition program, Ms. Wilson says.
But most applicants say their sole motivation is to be of service.
Alan Morasch, a 46-year-old Calgary resident, is among a select group of volunteers whom organizers are testing at pre-Games sporting events.
This week he's at the Whistler Sliding Centre performing duties such as helping people get equipment on and off the track.
"Being part of it is the reward in itself," he says.
Mr. Morasch says he's confident he'll keep the same job during the Olympics because of his experience as a participant and volunteer in bobsleighing in Calgary. But, he adds, "nothing is set in stone."
Nickie Snyder, a 27-year-old nursing student at the University of British Columbia, is one of the few volunteers to get an early assignment. Late last fall, she signed up as an anti-doping chaperone, a position that requires extra training because of its witness role and the need for confidentiality, according to VANOC.
Ms. Snyder's job will be to escort athletes to the testing facilities.
"I'm really excited about meeting the athletes," she says. Anti-doping volunteers have to curb their enthusiasm around their charges, however, because "we can't appear to be biased in any way," she says.
Although she is Canadian, Ms. Snyder lives in Ferndale, Wash., a two-hour trip from Vancouver. She is planning to commute for each of her 20 volunteer shifts.
"It is a big time commitment," she says.
But Ms. Snyder says volunteering is the only way for her to get involved in the Olympics, since she finds event tickets are too expensive.
"I was afraid that the Olympics were just going to come and pass me by," she says. "I would just be so disappointed in myself."
