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Community integral to positive Summer Games experience

Complete with a torch relay, opening ceremonies and athletes’ villages, the Alberta Summer Games are a “mini-Olympics” coming to Okotoks and Black Diamond this July.
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Marica Borovich-Law, manager of the 2023 Alberta Summer Games, in front of the Games office on Jan. 15.

A “mini-Olympics” is coming to town in just over six months. 

That’s the message games manager Marica Borovich-Law is hoping to share with the community as preparations to host the 2023 Alberta Summer Games intensify in Okotoks and Black Diamond. 

Complete with a torch relay, opening ceremonies and athletes’ villages, the Summer Games are a sporting spectacle that will see over 3,000 athletes, coaches and officials from throughout Alberta descend on the host communities for four days this July. 

“People don’t understand what the Games are, so I like to say they’re a mini-Olympics,” said Borovich-Law. 

Fourteen sports are being contested at the Games that will see teams and individual competitors come from eight zones across Alberta to compete for provincial bragging rights. 

Borovich-Law said it’s up to the host communities to ensure the athletes enjoy an experience they’ll remember for a long time. 

“This is the first major competition for these kids,” she said of the competitors who will range in age from 11 to 17. “It’s a life-shaping experience that we want to be really positive. 

“Our single focus is to create something these kids will remember.” 

To that end, she’s hopeful the community will get behind the Games in a variety of ways, from volunteering and attending events to becoming sponsors or donors. 

The Games are being overseen by a 17-member board of directors led by former Okotoks mayor Sandi Kennedy, but will require as many as 1,800 volunteers in order to house, feed, transport and entertain all the athletes.  

With inflation playing havoc with the original food and gas budgets, organizers must raise well north of $1 million to stage the Games, so they’re actively looking for sponsors as well as cash and in-kind donations. 

Those donations, whether they’re outright gifts or cost-sharing arrangements, can be for everything from food and fuel to portable equipment like tents and forklifts. 

Those interested in volunteering can go to the Games website, 2023asg.com, to sign up, where they’ll be able to select two preferences from more than 100 opportunities. There are all kinds of sport-related postings as well as tasks involved with accommodation, culture, protocol, registration and much more. 

Borovich-Law said one of the more interesting volunteer positions is to become a mayor of an athletes’ village, a non-elected role akin to a den mother. She said with so many young athletes away from their parents, the mayor will be tasked with taking care of all the little issues that will inevitably crop up. 

Games organizers have a number of events planned for the early part of 2023, including a dinner at Big Sky BBQ in March and an April concert featuring The Travelling Mabels and Over The Moon. A community fun run is also in the works. 

Borovich-Law said the events are intended to raise money and awareness as well as get people involved with the Games. 

For more information on the Summer Games, which run July 20 to 23, visit 2023asg.com. 


Ted Murphy

About the Author: Ted Murphy

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