The Orillia 2020 Ontario Winter Games are a year away, but planning is in full swing.
Orillia and surrounding areas will welcome 3,500 participants for the games — about 500 more than when the city hosted the event in 2018.
“The level of interest is through the roof,” said Jed Levene, who has volunteered to chair the games organizing committee.
This will be the first time in Ontario Winter Games history that the maximum number of participants will be involved. To accommodate all of them, the committee has its work cut out.
It will soon start recruiting the 800 volunteers needed to help make the games a success. More information about volunteering will be posted to orillia2020.ca, so keep an eye on that site for more details as they become available.
The games, which will run from Feb. 27 to March 1, 2020, will feature athletes 11 to 22 years old from across the province.
Next year’s games will feature 27 sports — two more than in 2018. Organizers aren’t at liberty to release specifics yet.
“They’re not the same 25 as last time. There are a couple of new, exciting ones,” Levene said.
The games are sure to be a boon for the local economy. They were last year, generating $4.2 million in economic spinoff — $3.5 million of which remained in the immediate area.
It also allowed the city to put $170,000 aside in a legacy fund to be reinvested in the community.
Expenses will be greater in 2020 since there will be more participants. Also, the amount of provincial funding does not increase with the number of participants, so organizers are setting a goal of $100,000 for the 2020 legacy fund.
One area on which organizers want to improve over 2018 is proximity.
“We want to keep things as centralized as possible. Our new recreation centre will be key to doing that,” Levene said.
However, there will still be the need to hold certain events in venues outside of Orillia.
The opening ceremonies are expected to take place at Couchiching Beach Park again.
“That’s always an exciting part,” Levene said of the kick-off that sees the participants parade into the park.
A volunteer complement of 200 is needed just for the opening ceremonies.
Levene succeeds Gill Tillmann, who chaired the organizing committee in 2018.
“Gill’s been absolutely crucial for me. I’ve been leaning on her a lot,” Levene said, noting Tillmann is volunteering for the 2020 games in a different role.
He is hoping the community rallies behind the games like it did in 2018.
“We want the people of Orillia to get out there and support the games,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity to see some sports they might not have seen before.”
