A warehouse operation at the T.G. Smith Arena in Steinbach is playing a pivotal role in the Power Smart Manitoba Summer Games. Ernie Froese heads up the facility. He explains what he and about 20 fellow volunteers are doing each day of the games.

"It's with regard to the supply of the needs for the sports venues and the athletes' villages. We bring out items such as water, ice, environmental items and then we also bring in items such as equipment for sports venues, anything from bats and balls to miscellaneous items. People call us and we supply and we deliver. Everything comes into this location as a centre hub. Vehicles arrive here, they drop off their items, we sign in all items and, when they leave, we sign them out to the teams so we can do a reconciliation of where everything is at."

Froese has taken two weeks off work from his job at HyLife to coordinate the warehouse activities for the games. He says it was an easy decision.

"I really love sports and I really love being with kids and seeing them involved. Kids that are involved in sports have an opportunity to succeed later on in life with regards to working as a team in business environments. Just seeing the excitement that it brings to their faces, I just feel this is a big opportunity for us to have a positive impact on them and also that we, Steinbach, can have a positive impact throughout the province."

Froese says things have been going very well and they've heard a lot of positive comments related to the warehouse which they really appreciate. At the same time though, he says they are always open to learning more.