Utahns might as well get excited about the Olympics because they're coming in 2002 - like it or not.
That was the message at the first large-scale effort by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to tell the state's residents what it has planned for the 2002 Winter Games.About 1,000 government, community, business andreligious leaders sat through four-plus hours of meetings at the Salt Palace Tuesday about everything from volunteers to venues.
They also got pep talks from a parade of speakers, including Olympic gold-medalist skier Picabo Street, who advised them to "just put on a smile and welcome the world."
Gov. Mike Leavitt, who put on a bobsled helmet during his speech, acknowledged that some in the audience may not support the Olympics. But he said that doesn't matter.
"We're beyond that point. They're coming," the governor said. "We will make them a resounding success . . . This will stretch us, but we will be a better state as a result."
He said the entire state should be involved. "If we look good on television and impress the world, but our people feel no part of this, it will be a hollow victory," the governor said.
Leavitt tried to stir the crowd by invoking the memory of the announcement by the International Olympic Committee in 1994 that Salt Lake City had been awarded the Winter Games after decades of bidding.
That day, thousands of Utahns gathered at the City-County Building to celebrate the victory. A recent Deseret News poll, though, found just under half of the state's residents don't want to be involved with the Olympics.
And a majority of the poll respondents said they don't know enough about plans for the 2002 Winter Games, and that the Salt Lake Organizing Committee wasn't doing enough to get them involved.
Olympic organizers, who have been criticized for being too secretive about their plans, have been pressed to provide more information by state and local leaders.
SLOC chief executive officer Frank Joklik opened what was billed as just the first "Olympic Forum" between now and 2002 by asking the audience for their help.
Organizers say they'll need an unpaid labor force that's 18,000 strong during the Winter Games. Another 8,000 volunteers are needed before the event and up to 6,000 for the Paralympic Games for disabled athletes afterwards.
The first details of the volunteer program were released at Tuesday's meeting, although sign-ups won't begin until later this year for pre-Olympic assignments.
Volunteers will have to be at least 18 years old, able to commit to at least a 17-day assignment, willing to work weekends, including Sundays, and be ready to spend about a year in monthly training sessions.
For their efforts, SLOC promised volunteers would get to keep their uniforms as well as receive a specially designed watch and two tickets to the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremonies.
After hearing about the volunteer program, Jim Burns, a member of the board of the Utah Nonprofits Association, said Olympic organizers might be overly optimistic about their expectations.
"Seventeen days for anybody is an enormous drain. Most of us have trouble getting through five days," Burns said. He suggested during a question-and-answer session that volunteers be given tickets to Olympic competitions.
At another session on Olympic arts and culture programs, Aida Mattingley of the Governor's Asian-American Advisory Council said she didn't get much new information.
"I don't think we've had enough. We heard enthusiasm," Mattingley said. That could be a plus, though, she said. "That's good in a way because we'll be part of the planning - hopefully."