Volunteers hold the Games together

(Left to Right) Heidi Green, Jemima Green, Molly Staples and Lisa Staples.

By junior reporter Charlotte Green

There have been over 1250 volunteers helping at the games this week, but what would the competitors like to say to the volunteers that have made the Games happen? I headed down to the swimming finals on Wednesday night to find out.

In the swimming, there are a variety of different volunteer roles that make the swimming what it is, from the bucket boys to the technical officials, medal maids to the live-stream volunteers. It really is an amazing ambience. We spoke to some of the swimmers about what they thought of the volunteers.

Maddy Russell (17) from Team Guernsey says “All the athletes, especially me, are extremely grateful for the volunteers because without the volunteers we wouldn’t be able to run the Island Games. They really are the glue that has held all of this together.” 

This feeling is very much mutual amongst all the athletes. Mia Stillwell (17) and Isobel Muncaster (15) from the Isle of Wight say, “The volunteers have been really helpful in collecting the buckets and handing out the medals.” 

To the Shetland swimmers, Rhona Anderson (16) and Anne Hutchison (24), what really stood out to them was the bucket boys as their jobs are to take the athletes things out of the way from behind the blocks so there is space for the officials to do their jobs properly. They said that this has been super helpful as it is one less thing for the athletes and officials to worry about.
 
So, whether you are a bucket boy or a referee, the athletes really value all of the volunteers input into running the games as it could not run without them and makes everything run extremely smoothly.