NEW FAMILY BORN OUT OF GAMES STAFF

A GREAT unwritten legacy from the Commonwealth Games surrounds its staffers.

The Games hired up to 1800. About 60 of them including emergency service crews worked marathon hours at the Ashmore TAFE campus in the three-week hothouse around the event itself.

“We had a Games operation centre where we worked around the clock. You’d say goodbye to family at that time,” a staffer says.

More than 700 are now part of a Games alumni. They meet for lunches regularly and check up on each other.

These are people who did not have glass jaws when the Games copped criticism. Many, like CEO Mark Peters, love the place so much they decided to stay here. They are our city’s biggest, newest family.