Chantelle Grant

Chantelle Grant says she cannot imagine her life without sport. A dedicated athlete, committed fundraiser and passionate community volunteer, the 22-year-old Mississauga, Ont. resident departed on Sept. 8 for Hamilton, Bermuda, where she will work with the Bermuda Olympic Association in its preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. Grant is one of four Canadian interns selected for the Capacity Support Program, an innovative pilot program funded by the Commonwealth Games Federation and Commonwealth Games Canada. The 14-month internship is aimed at increasing the sport management capacity of other countries' Commonwealth Games Associations. "This program will further bring the Commonwealth countries together," said Grant. "Just because at the Games we [Canada] will be there to compete, doesn't mean we can't support each other in the preparations!" Grant has been an athlete for as long as she can remember. Spending much of her youth as a competitive gymnast, she also trained in dance, soccer, basketball and hockey. She previously worked as a multi-sport director for Milton, Ontario's Planet Kids Day Camps, was an assistant student manager of the Brock University Women's Hockey Team, and worked as the Brock University Off-Campus Coordinator, where she was named employee of the year. Grant recently graduated from Brock University with an Honours Bachelor of Sport Management. In the days before her departure, Grant couldn't wait to join the team in Bermuda. "I'm really eager to get started. Building up to our departure, I've had a lot of ideas flowing that I'll share while working together with the Bermuda Olympic Association," she said. Grant has demonstrated some incredible volunteer successes in the past, fundraising $26,000 for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as a Shinerama Coordinator, and working with a group of colleagues to raise $6,000 for a Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Grant now plans to apply her athletic and sport management experience to Commonwealth Games Canada and the Bermuda Olympic Association, where she will work alongside staff and volunteers and be responsible for games preparation and implementing a games management software program called Zeus. Other duties will include assisting with grant applications and proposal writing. "This program is going to give me unbelievable experience that I cannot get anywhere else," she said. "It's going to increase my adaptability skills, and I'm going to learn a lot about thinking on my feet." Grant has long understood the benefits of sport, both personally and at an international level. "Sport teaches people invaluable lessons – things like leadership skills, teamwork, poise, class, and the ability to recognize your strengths and weaknesses," said Grant. "By using sport as a tool, people are able to learn these skills and I think it can bring countries together.