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South Surrey volunteer on the Olympic beat

Sandra Tice "honoured" to be part of the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
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Sandra Tice stands outside Team Canada’s accommodations at the athletes’ village in London.

Sandra Tice remembers the moment well.

She was walking along the Vancouver waterfront, near the athletes’ village, early on the first day of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Hours later, the opening ceremonies – and all the noise, crowds and craziness that followed – would officially launch one of the most successful Games in history.

But for the moment, it was quiet.

Then suddenly, the calm of the morning was snapped by the sound of a sliding screen door seven or eight floors up.

“I looked up at the athletes’ village, and saw two young girls walk out on their balcony and scream, ‘Good morning Vancouver! We love you!’” Tice explained. “It was a pretty cool moment.”

And for Tice, a South Surrey communications professional who says she’s “always been crazy about the Olympics,” the moment cemented her love of the Games even further.

Now, she’s back volunteering again – this time at the Summer Olympics in London.

At the Vancouver Olympics, Tice, making use of her writing, photography and graphic-design skills, was tasked with helping edit and produce a daily Olympic newsletter, which was distributed throughout the village for volunteers, staff members and behind-the-scenes crew.

She’s doing a similar job in London, where she’s acting as a reporter for the daily athletes’ newsletter, which puts her right in the thick of the action.

“It’s great to meet these people, these great athletes, and talk to them, find out what their stories are and why the Olympics mean so much to them,” Tice said last month, a day before boarding a plane for London.

“Just to be a part of it all is tremendous, but I’m also lucky… some of the volunteer jobs aren’t that exciting – maybe you’re in charge of furniture – but this is special, to be out and about.”

She left the 2010 Games with so many positive memories, she decided to apply again for London “kind of on a lark.”

Among her favourite memories from the Winter Olympics, she said – aside from overhearing that Day 1 early-morning wakeup call – was meeting Rick Hansen, and being in the village whenever a Canadian athlete came home with a medal.

“I remember getting to see our ice-dancing pair, Tessa (Virtue) and Scott (Moir), after they won their gold medal. They were just springing around the village, they were so happy,” Tice recalled.

In addition to the many athletes, Tice also got the chance to meet many of her fellow volunteers, some of whom have become veterans of multiple Olympic Games, hopping from one to the next, helping in whatever capacity that’s needed.

When writing a story on the volunteers for the daily newsletter, she recalled interviewing one woman who had been to “four or five” Olympics.

And though Tice is reveling in the experience, she doesn’t expect to become one of the Games-hopping volunteers herself.

“No, no, I don’t think I’m in a position to do that,” she said, adding she was not even sure her work schedule would allow for her to go to London.

“But it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it’s such an honour to be here, in the background helping out.

“And now I can say I’ve been to both summer and winter Olympics.”