Sponsorship secured

In 2016, Liberty will begin hosting the annual Virginia Commonwealth Games

Liberty University announced it will begin a sponsorship of the Virginia Commonwealth Games at Liberty for the next five years, according to a Liberty news release from October.

Partnership — Pete Lampman (left) and Jerry Falwell Jr. (right) posed at a press conference announcing the deal. Photo credit: Joel Coleman

Partnership — Pete Lampman (left) and Jerry Falwell Jr. (right) posed at a press conference announcing the deal. Photo credit: Joel Coleman

The five-year contract will begin the summer of 2016. Liberty will host and be the official title sponsor of the annual event, which has been taking place for the past 26 years.

Peter Lampman, president of Virginia Amateur Sports, Inc. (VAS), said he is very excited for the games to come to the Lynchburg area next year and for the athletes to have the opportunity to use the state-of-the-art facilities Liberty’s campus has to offer. He said he believes participation will continue to increase.

“It’s important for us (to have Liberty host the games) because it’s the chance for us to move to another area in the state,” Lampman said. “Having it in Central Virginia may increase our participation. It’s now closer to Virginia Beach, Northern Virginia and Richmond, so people won’t have to drive quite as far.”

When Liberty heard Subway was not renewing their contract with VAS for the Commonwealth Games, the university reached out to the non-profit and expressed its desire to be the official sponsor and involve the city of Lynchburg, according to Lampman.

“We’re very excited about coming to Lynchburg and Liberty University,” Lampman said. “I feel the excitement in the air coming over here. People have been very open-armed and very receptive to our coming over and look forward to working with us.”

Lampman has been working for VAS since 1992 and said his favorite part about the Commonwealth Games is working with the people, most of whom are volunteers.

“We only have a staff of four, so everybody we work with are primarily volunteers,” Lampman said. “They enjoy what they’re doing and they’re always so positive. There’s always a solution of, ‘Let’s make this thing work.’”

Since the Commonwealth Games thrive and run on volunteers, Lampman said they are always looking for more. He said he looks forward to working with volunteer students, faculty and staff from Liberty and others who live in Lynchburg and the surrounding area to help the process of the 2016 Commonwealth Games run smoothly.

“We are so excited about this new partnership with Virginia Amateur Sports and the City of Lynchburg,” President Jerry Falwell said in a news release. “We’ve spent the last decade building (Liberty’s) athletic and recreational facilities. We wanted to find a way to share these facilities with the local community, with the state and not keep them to ourselves … and thought this was the perfect opportunity to bring these games to Lynchburg, to share our facilities with the Commonwealth Games and with the general public.”

The Virginia Commonwealth Games at Liberty is known as “Virginia’s Olympics” and their mission is “to promote awareness and benefits of physical fitness and healthy lifestyles through sports education, training and competition,” according to the VAS official website.

The 2016 main Commonwealth Games will take place this year on the weekend of July 22-24. Ranging from ages 4 to 90-years-old, a variety of athletes and competitors come out to the Commonwealth Games each year, Lampman said.

“In 1990, the initial Games drew 4,400 athletes competing in 29 sports,” the VAS website says. “In 2015, over 55 sports were offered with approximately 9,200 athletes.”

According to the news release from Liberty, more than 225,000 athletes have participated in the Commonwealth Games since its start in 1990, which have consistently taken place in Roanoke, making it the largest multi-sport festival in Virginia.

For more information about volunteering for the 2016 Games at Liberty, visitcommonwealthgames.org.

Ritter is a news reporter.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *