Members of Thunder Bay’s Olympic effort were honoured with a party before heading out to Vancouver this week.
With friends, family, a cake and a DJ, the Arthur Street McDonald’s sent off locals working the games off in style. Kathy Bukovey, who works with McDonald’s Thunder Bay community relations, is one of 14 McDonald’s employees from across the country going to Vancouver. She will be working as a hospitality ambassador in downtown Vancouver. She organized the party so all of the people from Thunder Bay heading to the games could meet and celebrate their efforts. Bukovy said she found out two weeks ago that she would be sent to the Olympics.
" I thought it would be a great idea to not to just celebrate that I’m going but all the people in Thunder Bay," said Bukovy. "I thought we would just get all together get a picture and just talk about our stories."
Bukovy said she didn’t know if wshe would have time to take any of the events in because she would be busy greeting people but she does have a chance to take in some preliminary events at the games.
Thunder Bay Police Services training officer Greg Stein is one of 12 local officers providing security at the games. Although he knows he’ll be located at the Olympic main media centre, Stein said he won’t know what the specific details of his assignment will be until he arrives in Vancouver Thursday.
"What that will entail I have no idea," said Stein. "The logisitcs of this event are absolutley huge."
Stein said it’s a real honour to be able to wear his own uniform at an event that probably won’t take place in Canada again during his career. He came to the party to meet other locals who will be in Vancouver.
Stephen Kusznier is a transit operator in Thunder Bay. He will be one of 13 local bus drivers transporting 2.1 million people to and From the alpine events in Whistler. Kusznier said he can’t wait to get up in the morning, drive up the mountain and meet people from all over the world while welcoming them to Canada.
Kusznier, who will be in British Columbia for 33 days, said he’s hoping to see some of the events.
