It's the final countdown and all of Swift Current is banding together as the Western Canada Summer Games sit 23 days away from the opening ceremonies. 

With over 500 hours till the games commence, preparations are reaching the final stretch, gathering volunteers and getting the venues ready. 

Co-chair for the Western Canada Summer Games, Melissa Shaw, said it’s been great to see the plans go from paper to reality. 

“It’s been a great process from a little over five years ago when we started to now,” she said. “We’ve seen our volunteers grow, our plans go from plans to paper to actually seeing some of the shipments of sporting equipment show up, to starting to get our facilities and venues ready for everyone to arrive.

"It’s been a really exciting transition and we are getting really excited for the next couple of weeks to get here and for all the athletes, visitors, and spectators to arrive in our community.” 

Shaw said that their biggest focus for them currently is gathering volunteers. 

“We are still looking for a few more people. We are making progress on those numbers but we still have a little bit of space to fill up.” 

She said that they are looking for 2,000 volunteers, and they just sit at about halfway to their goal. 

“As of right now we are sitting just under a thousand people including staff, to board of directors, to volunteers - so it’s really taking a whole community effort,” Shaw said. “We are really pushing for that extra thousand to make sure that these games are a true success. There might be a few areas where we can trim things back, but we really want to ensure that we offer a good experience for not just the athletes but the volunteers. If we can fill those positions, I think it will just be a better opportunity for everyone involved." 

She added that they aren't too worried, as more people have been signing up the further we get into summer. 

"In the last ten days we've seen an uptake of about 300 people," Shaw said. "As it gets closer, and as people define their summer plans a little bit more, we are really hoping that we will see those numbers increase quite quickly." 

Shaw said that if they don't reach the desired 2,000, they are still going to offer the games to the best of their ability. 

"We are still going to be able to offer the games. It will just mean we will have to look at some double shifting. We will have to look at some juggling - our goal is to reach that (2,000), and if we get to the point that we are really concerned, we will start looking at contingency plans - but we are still confident that we are going to be able to host a successful event." 

Shaw said that if you are looking to become a volunteer, make sure that you fill out all of the information.