Life is a highway for veteran Canada Games volunteer

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This article was published 31/07/2017 (3153 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Denis Drouin sleeps in a 1999 Safari Condo camper, about the size of a family van, parked along Waterfront Drive in Winnipeg.

The locomotive has 307,000 kilometres to its name — the most recent ones logged on a two-day drive from Bécancour, Que., to downtown Winnipeg, where he’s adding another volunteer badge to his impressive resumé.

Drouin is volunteering for the third time at the Canada Summer and Winter Games — a stint of consecutive competitions he attended after volunteering at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

He goes alone to each one, leaving behind his wife, two children — and now, four grandchildren — in order to help young athletes have a memorable experience.

“I really believe in sport,” he said on a hot Sunday afternoon a few paces from where he had parked his small dwelling, which has no air-conditioning.

Drouin has been involved in sports his whole life, playing baseball and skiing before strapping on basketball shoes for a college near Quebec City.

He sees the value in the Games, especially for young people — who, he believes, will learn through sport in ways that will contribute to their character.

“Some will be happy. Some will be sad. Some will disappointed of their performance. Some will be grateful… so it’s a life experience for them,” Drouin said.

Drouin said his motivation for volunteering is a little selfish — he simply loves to meet new people.

The retired contract manager of an aluminum plant is used to interacting with a variety of people daily.

So when his daughter suggested he volunteer at the 2013 Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que., where she lives, he went for it.

“I won’t lose time. I will do something,” he said.

Drouin is a photographer who is managing pictures for the Games in Winnipeg.

He has a positive outlook on life, and that prevents him from thinking his sleeping quarters are too small, or his drive was too long.

“It’s the best day of my life today. I met great people. I’ve been happy. My work is done. I’ll go to the festival, I’ll meet someone else… Living and being surrounded by people is what I like most,” he said.

Throughout his volunteer stints, he has met people from all over Canada and other places in the world. That gives him the confidence to say the country is filled with great people.

“There are much more people that are nice than the ones that aren’t,” he said.

He’s had some memorable experiences, such as coming face-to-face with his skiing idols, Nancy Greene Raine and Erik Guay.

When working the ski hill at the 2010 Olympics, he was at the starting gate for one of Guay’s races.

“I was right beside him, looking at him, it was a great moment,” he said.

Drouin believes many future Olympians are at this month’s Summer Games.

“Some of them will be the best of the world. So participating in helping them to achieve that goal is really rewarding,” he said.

Camping in Winnipeg’s downtown is no deterrent for Drouin. He’s already looking ahead to the 2019 Canada Winter Games.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll be in Red Deer, (Alta.,) in two years,” he said.

stefanie.lasuik@freepress.mb.ca