Salt Lake Organizing Committee’s president, Mitt Romney, was the first to pass through the Processing Centre (TPC) and collected the Winter Games’ first credential and uniform.
Romney said, “for a long time everything was just in the planning stage and today we’re beginning to get real, these things are happening. We opened our first venue, we have our credentials, we have our uniforms, and it’s clear now the Games are on the way”, he said. “This is our first official venue, we’ve moved in, we run it and it’s doing what it’s supposed to do”.
Before the Winter Games end, more than 34,000 volunteers and staff will have made their way to the centre in an industrial park west of Salt Lake City to receive credentials, uniforms and flu shots. The centre will be manned by 200 volunteers and staff and will be one of the longest running venues in terms of days of operation.
Questioned about the TPC’s out-of-the-way location, Romney explained several venues were considered before deciding on one outside the city. But he said an anonymous donor provided the building free of charge to SLOC.
He said, “the space was donated to us and it’s very accessible and has great parking. We looked at a location downtown but it would be very slow, with parking problems and traffic issues”.
Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony and after being processed, Romney filled a specially designed carrying bag with a jacket, pants, hats, gloves, t-shirts, turtlenecks, skin care products, maps and information.
Romney said the process was pretty fast but added there were about 50 people here processing him so “it took all of four minutes. Normally it will take longer as people try on jackets and pants to find the right size. And they had my accreditation ready in the computer, all they had to do was laminate it”.
Romney explained that uniforms were coloured according to function and that his mountain shadow blue kit will be no different than that worn by other administration workers. Sizes will range from triple-small to eight-extra large.
