3M Volunteer of the Month – December
Giving Time as a Volunteer Pays off in Receiving a Lifetime Experience

When Daiva Botyrius was filling out her information to volunteer for the 2013 ISU World Figure Skating Championships she had her daughter Lina in mind. Daiva and her daughter both have a love of figure skating but in different capacities.

Daiva has had a long-time appreciation for the sport but it was not until her daughter took an interest in the sport that she took steps to become an active member of the skating family. Lina on the other hand is a juvenile skater at the Woodbine WC, in the Greater Toronto Area, and like many young skaters has dreams of competing on a stage like the one that will be set in London next March.

“My daughter has been skating for three years and I have always been thinking that I would enjoy getting closer to the actual event organization. Then I heard the Worlds were coming to London, Ontario and I was going to buy tickets to many events. But then I decided that it would be so much more exciting to be part of it, not just for me, but for my daughter too. What if I can volunteer and she can be a flower picker on ice and see those athletes from up close,” shared Daiva.

Daiva acted quickly and was actually the very first person to submit her application form to volunteer in London. This will also be the first international figure skating event at which she has ever volunteered. When asked why she wanted to become involved, the answer was easy. “I decided that I want to experience and help to organize this event. How many Worlds are we going to have in Ontario? This is the chance! I want to be an example for my daughter. The decision was simply based on good heart, helping others, being a role model and getting my daughter to be involved too.”

The 45-year-old mechanical designer is not sure what area she would like to be placed in yet but with a skill in languages, speaking fluent Russian, Lithuanian and of course English, and a friendly demeanour to boot she could find herself in hospitality or media.

As we get closer to the event there are lots of things to start looking forward to but as we glance ahead to 2013 Daiva already has a few favourites she’ll be watching for in the halls.

“Patrick Chan, Mao Asada, Daisuke Takahashi, lovely Ksenia Makarova and of course my own roots Lithuanian dance pair – Deividas Stagniunas and Isabella Tobias. She has a story to tell herself, how she had to accept Lithuanian citizenship and resign from the US in order to be able to skate with Deividas,” said Daiva.

One thing we would like to correct is that under “age” she marked ’45, too old to skate’ but at Skate Canada we know that no one is too old to skate and no one is too old to volunteer. We are looking forward to having Daiva and many other talented Canadians on our team in London.