2014 Arnold Sports Festival – Volunteers make it happen!

Finally, home and recovering some, but would like to take a minute to thank everyone for all the hard work to make the USA Powerlifting events at the Arnold a success. I am sure I will forget someone but want to express our gratitude for all the volunteers who made this possible. The core volunteers who dedicated countless hours over the past year are Greg Page and Priscilla Ribic.  The planning and implementation of an event of this scope and coordinating logistics is a year-round job. A big thanks to Stephanie Dzurnak, who loaded equipment, ordered lunch, set up the venue, coordinated spotters and loaders and virtually everything else. Our Technical Secretary, Robert Keller coordinated officiating, served as speaker part-time, escorted dignitaries and assisted in finding Masters of Ceremony. Our referees come at their own expense to work all weekend long at their own expense to work all weekend and included Rob Grisham, Bill Sindelar, Robert Massey, Chris Robb, Eliot Feldman, Emanuel Scheiber, Erin Ribic, Bill Helmich, , Gaston Parage, Sabine Al Sombati (and others I am forgetting right now). Ron Dues served as platform manager and coordinated the spotting team from Buckeye Barbell. No competition would be possible without Joe and Cathy Marksteiner, scoring managers. They were assisted by Mike Zawalinski and Roy Apostle. Emanuel Scheiber, Secretary-General of the IPF came to work. He helped set up the venue, refereed, and anything else we needed. Bernie Tatulinski coordinated the USA Powerlifting merchandise booth. Our registration crew was volunteered and managed by Johnny Graham, IPF and USA Powerlifting Vice President(s). Johnny also officiated, helped with setup, served as platform manager on the Expo Stage. I would like to thank Gino Biancheri, who came in from New Jersey to watch and announced all three days.  He was assisted by Jen and Dan Gaudreau, Lance Slaughter and Andy Dorner, and Bill Helmich. Perhaps the most un-fun job of any competition, but one of the most important is that of Drug Testing Officer. Jack Marcus does this professionally but donates his time to USA Powerlifting. While not our volunteers, the crew from Livetech ran our sound and lights, stayed overtime, managed our changes and stayed unflaggingly cheerful. No competition of this magnitude would be possible without the generosity of our sponsors: Starting Strength, Rogue Fitness, SSP Nutrition, GNC ProPerformance, Titan Support Systems, Bench Blokz, Next Lifter Software, Rocky Mountain Lifting Club, SSPT Training Systems, Justin Mack Designs, Kings Gym, Lifting Large, Risto Sports. These generous supporters were assisted and supported by our Marketing Committee members Priscilla Ribic and Rob Schmidt. Thank all for making USA Powerlifting at the Arnold such a tremendous success.