Olympics volunteer finds togetherness at Games and in Rotary
As a child in the 1950s, Ernie Peterson remembers watching the Olympics on TV. “I sat there absolutely fascinated and thought, ‘You know, it would be nice to attend one day.’”
This summer in Paris, Peterson is attending his sixth Olympic Games as a volunteer. He’s part of a select group of devotees who volunteer at the Games over and over to do everything from taking tickets to helping spectators find their seats.
Image credit: Michelle Bruzzese
Since 2002, Peterson, a retired property appraiser and a member of the Rotary Club of Deland (Breakfast), Florida, has helped at the Games in Salt Lake City, Torino, Vancouver, Sochi, and Rio, mostly as a media assistant accompanying athletes to post-event interviews. He’s met gold medalists including skier Lindsey Vonn, swimmer Michael Phelps, and snowboarder Shaun White, marveling at “their focus, their intensity.”
One of his most memorable moments, though, was seeing two skiers in Sochi, Russia, embrace their mothers after downhill runs, one finishing with a gold medal and the other coming in fourth or fifth, their parents equally proud. “You could not tell from the reaction of the parent which one won gold,” he says. “It was just incredibly moving.”
This year, Peterson has what might be his sweetest gig yet: working the opening ceremony and at the outdoor beach volleyball matches beside the Eiffel Tower. Another bit of luck — when he couldn’t find a place to stay, a fellow Rotarian offered to host him. And this isn’t the first time; he’s stayed with Rotarians at other Olympics and, in return, has hosted them in Florida.
The Olympics and Rotary, Peterson says, have a lot in common: cultural exchange, internationality, and a “desire to do something good for the world.”
This story originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.