Dive Right In

You know the games are coming, but do you know the central role to be played by the University of Toronto in the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games?

“These games bring great sport and culture to our doorstep,” says Bruce Kidd, interim vice-president and principal of U of T Scarborough, where the new Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre will be the site of swimming, diving, fencing and sitting volleyball events, as well as the swimming and fencing portions of the modern pentathlon. The St. George Campus will host archery at Varsity Centre and field hockey on the Back Campus as well as the five-a-side and seven-a-side football events of the Parapan Am Games.

We have the places, now we need the people. Volunteers are needed to prepare fields, take tickets, usher spectators, shuttle athletes and dignitaries to venues and participate in the opening and closing ceremonies. If welcome houses, an initiative being considered for both the St. George and Scarborough campuses, go ahead, they will be staffed by alumni and friends of U of T to greet guests – from around the corner or around the globe – to the campus and the games.

Scheduled to run July 10 to 26 (2015 Pan Am Games) and Aug. 7 to 15 (2015 Parapan Am Games), these important competitions promise to bring together alumni, staff, faculty and students and give participants and spectators from home and abroad a strong sense of the university’s commitment to athletics.