GCIU:GCIU members have a close encounter with Olympic spirit

Photos courtesy of Salt Lake City 511M Secy.-Treas. Tom Mayhew

A view of the Olympics stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, from the top of the bleachers prior to the Paralympics.

GCIU members have a close encounter with Olympic spirit

Two GCIU members from Salt Lake City 511M have a lifetime of memories and excitement for their behind-the-scenes roles in the XIX Winter Olympics in February.

Local 511M Secy.-Treas. Tom Mayhew and Stefan McTee served as volunteers at the winter games that lasted 17 days and attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors to Salt Lake City. Participating in the games were 78 nations and more than 2,500 athletes.

Salt Lake City 511M member Stefan McTee, who volunteered work in preparation of the Olympics, pauses for posterity.

Mayhew served as a volunteer at the opening and closing ceremonies in Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium and at the Paralympics in March. McTee served in several capacities but primarily worked security at the E Center where the hockey games were played. Both said they were thrilled by the experiences.

Mayhew said he was first appointed to the light and sound crew at Rice-Eccles stadium, where he worked with members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) to run cables, hook up speakers, and help with rehearsals.

About a week before the star-studded opening ceremonies, Mayhew said he was switched to the VIP/Talent escort brigade. He said he got goose bumps listening to the Calgary Baptist Choir, which sang back up for R&B star R. Kelly, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir "warm up by singing to each other and with each other. That was a tremendous experience and a lot of voices!"

For ice skating champion Christi Yamaguchi's performance during the opening ceremonies, Mayhew said, he had to run half way around the stadium with her manager to meet her as she exited the ice. "I think that I may have come close to a heart attack, but we made it with about 10 seconds to spare," he said. He said he also saw film director Stephen Spielberg, Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), the Dixie Chicks band, and Mike Eruzione, who was a member of the U.S. Olympic gold medal hockey team who carried the Olympic torch to the cauldron to end its journey from Greece.

Mayhew said he was in the "green room" when Eruzione noticed him looking at the torch and handed it to him. "Wow! I didn't mean to hold it, but it was one of the best things that happened to me that night," he said.

For the closing ceremony, Mayhew served as an escort/security guard for the band KISS. He said he "had a lot of fun and once again met a lot of famous people: Donny and Marie Osmond, Dorothy Hamill, NSYNC, and others."

Mayhew was very excited to work in the Paralympics as part of the tech crew because his daughter Celeste was one of the performers, and he got to see her every day. He said there was a lot of work to erect the "massive metal mountains" and the "Spirit Lift" and add ramps to make the stadium more wheelchair friendly.

Mayhew said his Paralympics job "was not as glamorous as it was for the Olympics, but it was more fun because I was right next to the stage helping with the teleprompters. I was right there for the parade of athletes, the torch runners, the dancers, Lou Gossett Jr., and not too far from Stevie Wonder."

Of the athletes from around the world, Mayhew said: "It was so fun and inspiring to be part of such a global event. Being able to see behind the scenes and work with the performers and athletes made it seem more special to me."

McTee joked that what attracted him to his security job at the E Center at first were the "really sharp uniforms. . . . But over the two weeks of long hours and lines of spectators, being a part of it became much more than that. It was about the attitudes of spectators as they waited in long security lines – the laughter, the joking, the spirit of cooperation. It was about the appreciation they showed for the security and the patience they had while waiting.

"It was about the spirit of unity and how the whole world became focused on friendship, sportsmanship, and being the best we could be," McTee said, adding: "What a good feeling, after 9/11, to show the world that America is still the greatest country on earth."

A photo of this mural on an Olympics building was taken from the top of a stadium looking West.

A 'union' Olympics

For the millions of television viewers and tens of thousands of visitors at the winter Olympic games in Salt Lake City, the ceremonies and sporting events appeared to flow as smooth as ice.

What wasn't emphasized were the more than 26,000 volunteers, like Salt Lake City 511M members Tom Mayhew and Stefan McTee, who worked long hours without pay to make everything go smoothly.

Utah State AFL-CIO Pres. Ed Mayne said one of the reasons the Olympics went so well were the more than 5,000 union members and their families who served as volunteers.

Mayne, who also is a Utah state senator, said Salt Lake Olympic Committee Pres. Mitt Romney solicited the help of area unions more than two years before the event. Romney met with state AFL-CIO leaders and addressed the state federation's convention.

"For the success of the Winter Olympic games two years from now, I need the involvement and commitment of Utah labor, your members and their families. Please join us and become part of the Salt Lake Winter Olympic team," Romney told the Utah State AFL-CIO delegates.

Mayne said building and construction trades member already were busy preparing the city for the influx of visitors and athletes from around the world. Among these projects were a $1.2 billion reconstruction of the interstate, new hotels, airport improvements, a new light rail public transport system, and the Olympic stadiums and arenas. The projects were "on time and under budget using Utah union craftsmen," he said.

After the construction was finished, it took armies of union members doing their jobs to keep things running, Mayne noted, As they do in any U.S. city, ground and air transportation personnel, communications and printing employees, police, firefighters, government employees, building maintenance crews, performing artists and stage crews, steelworkers, and electricians were among the professional union workers who kept the Olympics in Salt Lake City on track.

In recognition of the union contribution, Romney asked Mayne to be one of the 18 Olympic venue chairpersons who oversaw the games' operation. Mayne's job was to oversee the E Center, the site of the Olympic hockey games and Paralympic sledge hockey games.

Romney also asked Mayne to be one of the Olympic torch bearers as the flame made its way to the Olympic stadium. "Utah unions made such a significant contribution of work and volunteerism, they earned the right to have their representative carry the Olympic torch," Romney said.

Mayne said the 2002 Winter Olympics was a "monumental effort and a huge global success, in most part because it was also a great union commitment and experience."

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