James Burton said he couldn't believe the telephone call from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee telling him he was one of six Olympic volunteers who'd won an all-expenses paid trip to Switzerland.
"April Fool's Day was coming and I thought it was a joke," said Burton, a customer service representative for the Internal Revenue Service from Roy. But he and his wife were soon on their way to Lausanne, Switzerland, home of the International Olympic Committee.
There, the IOC treated the contest winners like, well, IOC members.
The six days of red-carpet treatment in June started with underwriting the entire cost of the trip for each the six volunteers and a companion. The winners were selected by SLOC, through a drawing.
"It was first class all the way. They met us in black Mercedes in Geneva and took us to Lausanne," said another winner, Sheila Iversen, a retired educator from Calgary, Canada. "They wined and dined us."
Burton left impressed with the IOC, especially after spending time with a top administrator, Gilbert Felli, whose duties include working with Olympic organizing committees.
"Everybody at the IOC was gracious, nice and friendly," Burton said. "They had nothing but nice words to say about Utah." He said he was able to see first-hand the positive effects of the scandal that surrounded Salt Lake City's Olympic bid.
"I would say it seems like to me, (the IOC) has changed a lot," Burton said, citing the leadership and other changes made after the scandal. "With the reforms, maybe it's back on track of what the Olympics are all about."
Burton said he never had second thoughts about volunteering, even during the darkest days of accusations that Salt Lake City tried to buy the votes of IOC members with lavish gifts and trips.
"I love the Olympics. The first day we could volunteer, I was on the line," he said. "It's something I've wanted to do since the first bid." Burton ended up as a team leader at the curling venue in Ogden.
Debra Colby, a homemaker from Taylorsville who spent 55 days at SLOC's volunteer processing center, described the IOC staff as gracious. "They acted so grateful that we were volunteers," Colby said. "They just seemed like such down-to-earth people."
Iversen already knew about the IOC, having experienced the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. She wasn't able to volunteer at the Calgary Games because she was still working, as a high school principal.
She and four friends volunteered together for the Salt Lake Games and were assigned to The Peaks Ice Arena in Provo. One of the group had a home in the area, so they were able to stay together, too.
Back home in Canada, she's worn her SLOC volunteer uniform skiing. "People always ask about it," Iversen, a former Brigham Young University student, said. "They always rave about the Olympics."
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