The recruitment center was opened today by the Directorate of Sports and Social Projects together with the Volga State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism on the basis of the university. According to the director of the autonomous non-profit organization Maxim Denisov, this project involves long-term cooperation with the university through volunteerism, including the development of educational programs for university students who have become volunteers of all international events held in Kazan since 2011. The World Winter Games of the Special Olympics, which will be held in Kazan in January 2022, will be the first joint project of the new recruiting center and the Volga Region University. After all, the Games for athletes with special intellectual development will be held on the basis of sports facilities of the educational institution with the direct participation of 150 students and teachers of the Department of Adaptive Physical Culture and life Safety of the university.
The volunteer house is located in the educational and laboratory building, directly opposite the admission committee. Acting Rector of the Volga Region University Rafis Burganov noted that almost all those present at the opening ceremony are themselves "veterans" of the volunteer movement, the development of which started ten years ago since the preparation of volunteers for the World Summer Universiade in Kazan. "I think our future first-year students will be able to join the volunteer movement of the Special Olympics immediately after admission," the acting rector said. – This event is essentially a volunteer event, like no other. It will change their attitude to themselves. You also need to learn how to enjoy life, so that there is more good in it."
To cut the symbolic ribbon at the entrance to the recruiting center, it was entrusted to the volunteers of the upcoming international event and the athlete of the Special Olympics, a pupil of the Derbyshkin boarding house Vyacheslav Turin. He was supported by the floorball team members Andrey Alekseev, Zoya Nikolkina and Kamilla Goreva, as well as coaches Niyaz Galiakhmetov and Artem Markelov. At the end of the opening ceremony, Larisa Parfenova, Head of the Department of Adaptive Physical Culture and Life Safety and Executive Director of the Tatarstan branch of the Special Olympics in Russia, presented the team representatives with special equipment for further preparation for the upcoming games.
"I am really looking forward to this event," Vyacheslav Turin said after the opening of the center. – I want to participate, see athletes from different cities, go up so that everything is fine. Sport is the main thing for me. Now I am engaged in floorball, I work with a stick, I want to go out on the ice as a hockey player."
Now the recruitment campaign, which started in the online mode back in February 2020, will continue in the off-line mode. Everyone who wants to become Special Olympics volunteers will have to undergo face-to-face interviews and training. Within the framework of the Games, volunteers will be involved in more than 20 functional areas. The World Winter Games of the Special Olympics will be held in Kazan on January 22-28, 2022. The sports program of the Games includes competitions in 7 sports: alpine skiing, snowboarding, floorball, cross-country skiing, figure skating,short track and snowshoeing. More than 2000 athletes with intellectual development features and unified partners from 99 countries will take part in the competition.
