LEVERAGING VOLUNTEERS FOR FUTURE EVENTS Recruiting, training and retaining talented volunteers drives any successful event. Organizers worked with viaSport, BC’s amateur sports development body, to customize Rosterfy, an off-the-shelf software program to manage volunteers. More than 4,000 people signed up to volunteer for 1,800 spots. “We’ve asked permission to share over 2,000 names with other BC sport organizations so they, too, can access these volunteers,” says McVicker. McVicker also advises planners to understand timelines to build buzz. “That’s something we’re learning and working through; we know the market is interested, but instead of putting tickets on sale right away, we first announced our opening and closing ceremonies, asking 30,000 people to come to BC Place to help us honour and celebrate veterans in Canada who are fighting our wildfires and supporting families during floods,” she explains. ANTICIPATING CHALLENGES Moving about 2,000 athletes and family members during the event will be a big lift, predicts McVicker. “Transportation is going to be critical and huge. We’re benefiting from 2010’s improved highway between Vancouver and Whistler that cut the drive down considerably, but because everybody’s staying in Vancouver, we’ll be transporting the entire Invictus family up to Whistler and back,” she explains. “We have an incredible team pulling that together. Fleet is challenging to secure, because all cars need winter tires.” Staging a winter event also means organizers are dependent on the weather, which adds another layer of planning. “We need to make sure everybody’s warm and covered all the time, and that they have waterproof gear. And we’re praying hard for lots of snow,” adds McVicker. Speaking of snow, many Invictus participants have never seen any. The committee hosted a weeklong training camp in Whistler last February for participants, coaches and team managers so the athletes could become confident to compete in winter sports. “Everybody learned how to ski, snowboard, do cross-country biathlon and skeleton, and it was awesome because the Duke [Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex] attended—he tried the sports himself and really connected with the group. You could see this is where he needs to be; these are his people. It was a really powerful moment for everybody,” says McVicker. “For us, it ensured that our competitors were ready for the sport in 2025 and they went away with a training program they could then use, whether or not they had snow, for the year.” One Nigerian competitor named Peacemaker, an amputee who lost his leg, told Invictus CEO Scott Moore that skiing for the first time was the best day of his life. “The next day, he tried skeleton and needed to remove his prosthetic. When we brought it down to him, he said, ‘I changed my mind; THIS is the best day of my life because with skeleton, all it takes is courage,’” recalls McVicker. “This is what Invictus is about. We don’t even count the number of medals each country has. Often, people succeed just in showing up and getting off the blocks. This kind of support is what brought me here, and that’s what I’m excited about.” ARTIST LEVI NELSON How the Indigenous painter’s spiritual connection to the land inspired two legacy art projects in British Columbia By Wendy Helfenbaum Levi Nelson, an Indigenous artist from the Lil’wat Nation, is having a moment. In March, his bold painting, RED, was wrapped around a Whistler Blackcomb gondola to launch Vail Resorts’ Gondola Gallery by Epic, a program and film series that amplifies diversity in skiing and snowboarding. Nelson, along with three other Indigenous artists—Mack Paul of Musqueam Nation, Ray Natraoro of Squamish Nation and Olivia George of Tsleil-Waututh Nation—also created the visual identity for the 2025 Invictus Games in Vancouver and Whistler. CONTINUED ON PAGE 25 PHOTOS: JEFF VINNICK; JEREMY ALLEN; DAVID YOUNG PHOTO: MATT SYLVESTRE
