Fenwick a natural choice
Bill Fenwick just can’t stay away from sports.
The 71-year-old London native grew up playing hockey and tennis and then devoted over four decades to working in sport, including 11 years as the director of recreation and community services in St. Catharines from 1991-2002.
Add in five more years as director of culture and recreation for the city of Hamilton, six years in Welland as the director of parks and recreation and director of integrated services, and it’s easy to see why Fenwick was a natural choice as the Chair of the Games Services Committee for the 2021 Canada Summer Games.
“When I retired, I knew I was going to stay in sports some way,” Fenwick said. “I didn’t know which way, but I was quite fortunate shorty after I retired I was approached about the U-18 Worlds (Women’s Hockey Championship in St. Catharines in 2016). That was extremely successful. I think our bottom line was a $400,000 profit. It encouraged me to stay involved more and more.”
Fenwick was then asked to come on board in a volunteer capacity with the Canada Summer Games and quickly realized it would be a perfect fit
“I (also) served on Niagara Sport Commission and this was just another follow up to that,” the said.
Fenwick’s primary responsibility is to oversee what will end up being 23 volunteer chair positions who will be directly responsible for the 4,000 volunteers the games will require.
“From September until now, I’ve been working on getting people in those chair positions,” he said. “We have our core positions — technology, sport, venues, volunteers.”
Fenwick stressed that all the chair positions are voluntary, despite the enormous time commitment.
“It’s people within the community who are very busy but have a strong commitment to give back,” he said. “That’s the reason I’m involved. I’ve always been involved in sports.”
Fenwick said it’s vital to fill the chair positions with the proper volunteers.
“What I learned from Red Deer (2019 Winter Games) is make sure you get the right people in the right positions for the chair committees,” he said. “We scour out the community to see who is available and interview those people and then make a decision.”
Fenwick said the vast majority of applicants want to be part of the Games for the right reasons.
“Most of the people are of the attitude they want to give back,” he said. “Some of the chair positions, if we haven’t got the right people, then we go looking.
“We’ll get it done. Obviously there’s hiccups along the way if we don’t get the right people in the position then we will make sure we get the right person. We’re not going to just put someone in a position if we don’t feel comfortable. Most of the people are in the community are very busy.”
Fenwick marvels at how well the volunteers work with the Canada Games staff.
“The amazing thing is it’s all volunteers working with a strong staff. They are top notch. They come from all over to work here. They have the Canada Games concept and know how to organize things. Now it’s training the volunteers to be able to do the job.
“Most of the people in our chair positions are people who network in the community and know a number of people. If we need someone to lead a sport, because I’ve been in the area 29 years, I know a number of lot of people. A lot of the staff know a lot of people.”
Fenwick said he hopes to accomplish much more than simply filling all the positions with qualified applicants.
“The Canada Games is a legacy for infrastructure. My committee is trying to make it a legacy for program and knowledge of our volunteers,” he said. “When these games are over, we’re hoping we have a base of volunteers, it won’t matter what the sporting activity it, they’ll be able to go in.
“It’s a people legacy, a transfer of knowledge. We’re hoping they become so interested they can’t wait for the next one and we can get events in the future.”
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