16th FINA World Championships July 24 - August 9, 2015 APPRECIATION FOR TEAM OF KAZAN VOLUNTEERS 30.10.2014, 11:17 The Executive Directorate for Sports Projects held a volunteer recognition VOLUNTEERS ceremony to acknowledge members of the Kazan Volunteers team following the results of the events held in the spring-summer 2014. Working side-by-side with the organising committees, the volunteers donated 25,360 hours to the delivery of this season's sporting and non-sporting events. The meeting brought together the volunteers who had worked during the events in the spring-summer 2014. Deputy Director General of the Executive Directorate for Sports Projects, Alexander Karpov, and Director of the Volunteer Department, Anna Zakhmatova, attended the event as special guests. On behalf of the Directorate staff, Alexander Karpov extended a gratitude to the team of Kazan volunteers and underlined that all tasks set for this season have been achieved and, as it usually is, the volunteers' work got thumbs-up from participants and organisers of these events. For her part, Anna Zakhmatova provided updates on the volunteer programme; as the FINA World Championships are getting closer, more events are coming for Kazan 2015 volunteers, namely recruitment, training, test events. However, 2015 will not be the end of everything: Kazan is set to implement ambitious sports projects such as the IAAF World Junior Championships and INTERSPORT European Championships in 2016, FIFA Confederations Cup in 2017, FIFA World Cup in 2018 and many others. The volunteer awards were divided into several parts. The first part featured presentation of commendation letters signed by State Secretary and Russia's Deputy Minister of Sport Natalia Parshikova to participants of the 2014 International Congress of Winter Sports, Tourism and Active Rest. The next part saw the Chelyabinsk OC hand awards to the Tatarstan volunteers who lent their hand in staging the World Judo Championships. Plus, for their exemplary service, three representatives of the volunteer delegation were presented with commendation letters signed by Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Oblast Government Sergey Komyakov. For their efforts in staging the 5th International Meeting of High-Level Representatives on Security Issues, awards were also bestowed on students of the Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies and Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication. During the final part, commendation letters for participation in the preparation and delivery of events in the spring-summer 2014 and personal contribution to the development and promotion of the Kazan Volunteers movement were granted to those boys and girls who had donated the largest number of hours during this period. The award went to senior secondary school student Liana Volkova, who contributed a record number of hours (372). As we reported earlier, in March 2014 - before the kick-off of a new volunteer season - the team of Kazan volunteers was set a challenging task to successfully stage an array of major sporting and non-sporting events. The 2014 UEFA European U17 Championship elite round, INTERSPORT European Championships, Russian Synchronised Swimming Championships, World Skills Russia 2014, IWF Junior World Championships, 5th International Meeting of High-Level Representatives on Security Issues, World Fencing Championships, Russian Athletics Championships, World Fair Play Awards, FINA High Diving World Cup and 20 other competitions and occasions were included in the tight schedule of events to the staging of which Kazan Volunteers contributed their time, energy and skills. In addition, with the assistance of the Executive Directorate, the best and brightest Tatarstan volunteers were given a unique opportunity to enrich their experience at international sporting events held outside Kazan - the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and 2014 World Judo Championships in Chelyabinsk (RUS). Based on the feedback from the organising committees, all the volunteers were highly commended for their contribution to the delivery of these international competitions. Press Office of Organising Committee for 16th FINA World Championships BACK TO NEWS FEED http://finaworlds2015.dspkazan.com/en/news_items/1046 Page 1 of 1.