2013 SU Update: Kazan Holds ‘Volunteer of the Year’-Awards

Volunteers of the Year Award Ceremony

KAZAN – ‘Volunteers of the Year Award’ was held on Sunday, December 5th, within International Volunteer Day. 10 nominations were announced at the event.

The event saw the attendance of Director General of the Kazan 2013 Executive Committee Vladimir Leonov, Chairman of the Buruvestnik Physical Culture and Sports Society Emir Kharisov and heads of the departments of the Kazan 2013 Executive Committee.

In his welcome speech Vladimir Leonov thanked the volunteers for the assistance they render during the preparations for the 2013 Summer Universiade. ‘Next year Kazan is to host large-scale university sporting events in a number of sports and your help will be indispensable’, he said.

For his part, Emir Kharisov stated that it was due to its volunteers that Kazan gained the capital of sports status. ‘I’m proud that there are so many young people in our city that work selflessly in the name of lofty goals and future sports victories’, he said before handing the ‘Sports Coordinator of the Year Award’.

The ten best volunteers received their awards at a three-hour solemn ceremony. The ‘Volunteer of the Year Award’ went to Albina Khusainova. Yana Bagryanskaya and Margarita Zhdanova were awarded the ‘Sports Coordinator’ and ‘Sports Volunteer Awards’. Nailya Fakhrutdinova and Artur Khundiryakov were named the ‘Best Coordinator’ and the ‘Best Social Volunteer’ respectively. The ‘Best Photographer’ and ‘Best Journalist’ Awards went to Timur Gumerov and Rezeda Akhmetova. Alsu Dunaeva became the ‘Tutor of the Year’, Sadig Namazov got the ‘Always Prepared Award’ and Yuliya Novikova was marked with the ‘Master of Presentations Award’. Apart from them, Regina Mubarakshina and Timur Galeev were awarded the ‘Youngest Kazan 2013 Volunteer Awards’.

Sadig Namazov, winner of the ‘Always Prepared Award’, thanked the Kazan 2013 Executive Committee for the holiday organized for all the Kazan 2013 volunteers and shared his impressions of the ceremony. ‘The award is a pleasant surprise. Now I have a stronger incentive to proceed with my work and perfect myself’,  confessed Sadig.

‘Heart of the Universe’ will travel to Shenzhen

Team 2013 Project

At the ceremony the results of the ‘Team 2013 Project’ were announced as well. The ‘Team 2013 Project’ ran for five weeks. 13 teams of volunteers from Kazan’s universities and institutes participated in it. Each week the entrants were to complete tasks assigned by the organizers – the Kazan 2013 Executive Committee. Within the contest period, the teams made nearly a hundred presentations of the 2013 Universiade and its volunteer programme, implemented over 25 social projects, learned key phrases in five languages and presented their own versions of the legend about ‘Uni’, the mascot of the 2013 Summer Universiade.

Following the results of this five-week contest, the first prize – an internship at the 26th Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China – went to ‘Heart of the Universe’, the team that represented Kazan State Finance and Economics Institute. The second place and an internship at the 7th Winter Asian Games 2011 in Astana-Almaty (Kazakhstan) – was claimed by ‘Colors of the World’, the team of Kazan State Technological University. ‘Albedo’, the  team of the Russian Academy of Justice, became third and was awarded netbooks granted by MegaFon, General Partner of the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan.

Apart from finishing as a runner-up, ‘Colors of the World’ was marked with the Audience Choice Award and also won the ‘Seize the Moment Photo Contest’ that was held within the second week of the Team 2013 Project.

(Source: Media Department of Kazan 2013 Executive Committee)