Longtime volunteer Luba Frastacky is looking forward to helping foreign athletes feel at home
By Stuart Miller-Davis
Luba Frastacky is a longtime Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships (CIRC) volunteer. By her count she’s been involved for 35 plus years.
This would have been the 40th year for CIRC. The team paused the Canadian Championships this year after they won the right to host the 2023 World Rowing Indoor Championships – the first time the world championships have ever taken place in Canada.
“I’m really excited to be meeting up with the old members of the CIRC crew,” she said during a video call. “I’m looking forward very much to seeing and meeting with rowers from all over the world.”
The former rower who by her own accord is “past that now” lives in Toronto and will be a key member of the hospitality team at the 2023 World Rowing Indoor Championships (WRICH). Her role during the weekend will involve helping out athletes with their needs, like shuttles from where they’ll be staying to the venue, and workout spaces at the hotels.
She was part of a team that visited about 17 hotels near the venue for the 2023 World Rowing Indoor Championships, the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga. The team have picked ten hotels that will provide accommodation for competitors during the weekend in February.
Frastacky is excited to have different conversations with the world’s best indoor rowers in February. Among them Olympians, Paralympians, Cross Fit athletes and more.
“I’m looking forward to being able to have conversations with athletes in their own language,” she said.
The longtime volunteer said while she’s never been to the Olympic Games, WRICH 2023 will be like that for her.
“I can imagine it would be the same sort of feeling,” she said. “The comradery, the competitiveness, and the atmosphere as each team urges other members on.”
She’s also hoping the weather will cooperate. (Who knows? It’s Canada in February.)
“It seems that every time we have CIRC there’s a blizzard,” she said with a laugh. “I hope that it will be a wonderful weekend with a lot of people coming in with a lot of fun and enthusiasm.”
She urges competitors to book their hotel early to get the special room rates offered before they end February 1st. wrichtoronto2023.ca/accommodations
You can join Luba and our team in making history happen in Mississauga by going to wrichtoronto2023.ca/volunteers