McDonald's To Help London 2012 Recruit 70,000 Volunteers

For the first time in the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, an organizing committee has looked to sponsors to support volunteers with the announcement that McDonalds was named Friday as presenting partner of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

As presenting partner, McDonalds will reportedly use its expertise and people development to help attract and select 70,000 volunteers and train the diverse team that will be known as Games Makers. This will include providing training staff, materials and facilities. McDonald's will use its 1,200 restaurants in communities across the UK to spread the message and attract volunteers from all walks of life and every corner of the UK, reports Human Resources magazine.

Its reportedly the biggest postwar volunteer recruiting campaign in British history.

London 2012 Chairman Lord Coe said, "volunteers are vital to the success of the Games and there are few organizations with the scale and experience required to help us prepare such a large team in a relatively short space of time".

Applications for volunteers with specialist backgrounds will start July 27 and applications for "generalist roles" begins September 15.

A volunteer program for those under the age of 18 will be unveiled in July 2011.

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