NEWS

City volunteers out on patrol

Entire families are among the 3,200 people who have signed up for the Athens Municipality’s volunteer program for the Olympic Games, city officials announced yesterday. As of today, the volunteers will be staffing some 60 information kiosks around the city and acting as the city’s «eyes and ears» in pinpointing problems from garbage and abandoned cars to accidents. Volunteers will also be patrolling 58 routes throughout the Athens Municipality’s seven wards to provide information and assistance to visitors. Training programs are being held in three shifts and applications will be accepted until August 10, although Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyannis’s original goal of 3,000 volunteers has already been met. The majority (64 percent) are women and 81 percent are educated to tertiary level. Many are from immigrant communities. Most are aged 18-30, although one man, Dimitris Stefanou, is 77 and speaks seven languages.

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