Stawell Bowling Club’s Carmel Loats has been selected as a bowls volunteer for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
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More than 47,000 people applied to volunteer at the Games, with just 15,000 selected to fill a variety of roles at the event.
Loats said she was ecstatic when she found out her application had been successful.
“I was pretty excited and quite thrilled,” she said.
“It really is a great honour.”
Loats has volunteered at bowls competitions for 13 years and has travelled around Australia with her involvement in the sport.
She brings vast experience to the Games, having volunteered at Australian Bowls Open competitions for 10 years, including the last three years at the venue for the Commonwealth Games.
She said it will be a bonus being so familiar with the venue already.
“It is the same venue as the Australian Open which I have been to a few times now,” she said.
Loats’ specific role is yet to be determined, but she said she is prepared to do whatever is required of her.
“At this stage I don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing – the roster should be out by the end of this month,” she said.
“I can do anything in the bowls community like marking and scoreboarding – it just depends what is required of me.”
The 21st Commonwealth Games will be the fifth time Australia has hosted the event. The last time the Games were held in Australia was in Melbourne in 2006.
This opportunity will be Loats’ first as a volunteer at the Commonwealth Games. She said it was the event in Melbourne which inspired her to get involved in volunteering at a higher level.
“I went and had a look at Melbourne in 2006 and that’s what got me into doing what I do today,” she said.
“I looked at everything that was going and and said ‘I could do that, i could volunteer’, so I did.”
The Games are fast approaching, with the opening ceremony on April 4.
Loats said she was excited to attend.
“It will just be a wonderful opportunity,” she said. “You get to see the best bowlers from all over the world. It will also be great training as an umpire.”
Loats’ involvement with the Commonwealth Games provides yet another Wimmera connection to the international event.
It comes after Ararat was chosen to be part of the Queen’s Baton relay as the baton makes its way from England to Australia on February 13.
A former Horsham man, Trevor Holmes, will also be responsible for holding the Queen’s Baton as it makes its way through the Western Australian town of Rockingham on February 22.
