The Games are Coming!!!

Coming soon to the area is one of the largest international sporting events in the world: The World Police and Fire Games. Police officers, fire fighters, and federal agents from all over the globe are going to descend upon Fairfax, Virginia this summer for an Olympic style competition of strength, agility, and overall performance.

Thanks to one of my internships I am involved in a lot of opportunities that this event has to offer. For example, last night was the Draft Day Party. Each of the companies that are sponsoring the event gets to pick a sport to cover that is exclusively theirs. My company chose Track & Field.  Not exactly my choice but I’m not high enough on the totem pole to make that decision.

While at this party we got to mix and mingle with the other sponsors and some of the athletes. While also there we got to visit with bomb sniffing dogs as well as do more normal things like putting and shooting basketballs. It was an amazing experience. I would not have traded it for the world!

Talking to the athletes was probably one of my favorite parts of the event. These people have an extreme passion for their jobs. They work in the more intense fields and need a way to release that stress. What better way to do so than taking up a sport? Not only that, the sport can help them in their jobs! Speaking to them, you could really see that they loved the sport. They had a desire in their eyes and voice when speaking about the competition that you don’t see in professional athletes much anymore.

I wish professional athletes cared as much as the men and women I got to speak with last night care. Professionals get paid, sometimes a huge amount of money, to play a sport they claim to love for a living. Then they act out. They don’t show up to practices and start to think they are better than the sport that got them there.

I hear stories from my parents about athletes and how they remember when you could tell that athletes absolutely loved what they did. Apparently it was a different time. I wish I could see that. Sometimes I find it hard to support the athletes on the TV because I know there is probably someone out there just as skilled who would do anything to be able to play the sport they love and get paid.

Anyway, I could go on and on about this but I think you get the point. Support the athletes that love everything they do. Support the people that put their lives on the line so that we can be safe every single day. The WPFG are looking for volunteers and will take as many spectators as they can get! The Games take place from June 26^th – July 5^th all over the area from places like George Mason University to Reston Town Center. Take part. You won’t be disappointed.

For more information and ways to connect, please visit their site at fairfax2015.com. You can also connect with them on Facebook and Twitter.