Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-09-20

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Dep. Sports Minister talks on volunteerism to EU counterparts

[01] Dep. Sports Minister talks on volunteerism to EU counterparts

In pointing to Greece's experience with last year's wildly successful Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games of Athens, Orfanos reiterated to his EU counterparts that the "costs and (massive) investment for major sports events force organisers to rely, to a great extent, on the services of volunteers. Otherwise, every event would face an insurmountable financial problem".

He also underlined that the Athens 2004 Games' success was directly linked to the excellent performance of volunteers.

To prove his point, Orfanos said more than 45,000 2004 Olympic volunteers worked in Athens alone, out of an initial pool of 140,000 applicants.

"Over roughly two years we trained our volunteers, conveying to them the message of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The work was not easy and many hours along with patience was invested by the Athens Organising Committee's (ATHOC) staff," he noted.

Finally, he said most foreign volunteers hailed from the United States, Australia and Italy. "What's also amazing is the fact that we didn't lose one volunteer during the holding of the Games."

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