Volunteers boost Aloha State Games
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When Barbara Velasco needed hundreds of volunteers to stage the gigantic Aloha State Games in July, she turned to her home ward for help.
"It was marvelous the way officers and members of the Aiea Ward pitched in and helped in one of the largest sports events in the state's history," explained Sister Velasco, Young Women president in the Honolulu Hawaii Stake. "Where else could I find better volunteers with organizational skills and the spirit of service than in the Church?"She is executive administrator of the Hawaiian Pacific Sports Foundation and director of the Aloha State Games. She came to the sports foundation this year after serving in organizational capacities with the Hawaii Visitors Bureau. She previously was a physical education teacher, counselor, administrator and student activities coordinator for the Department of Education for 31 years. Her late husband, John E. Velasco, was one of the winningest high school football coaches in island history and a high school athletic director.
When she was asked to take on the complicated task of organizing the games, she traveled to several states on the mainland to find out their operating procedures for staging such games. Most of the states she visited had 10 or 12 events for their games, she said. "I wanted to organize and prepare for 31 different game classifications," she said. More than 3,000 athletes participated in the four-day event.
She organized 25 committees, staffed by volunteers, to direct the complicated games' structure. When the games were over, she related, many members said they wanted to serve on committees next year.
