FIVB Volleyball House wins award for best hospitality house of Olympic Games in Legacy category

Lausanne, Switzerland, September 14, 2016 - The FIVB Volleyball House continues to inspire and impress a month after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as it has been announced as the winner of a "Hospitality Houses of the Rio 2016 Games" award in the legacy category.
 

From left to right at the award ceremony: former Brazilian volleyball player Bernard Rajzman, Rio de Janeiro Chamber of Commerce President Paulo Protasio, FIVB representative Mariucha Monero and South American Volleyball Confederation Director Marcelo Wangler

The award is an initiative of Rio Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Olympic Municipal Company (EOM), the Secretariat of International Relations of Rio de Janeiro and Coordination of International Relations of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro and aims to highlight the work done by the Hospitality Houses in Rio.


The Volleyball House was opened on the first day of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

The FIVB Volleyball House was located in Cicero Penna School on Copacabana which the FIVB renovated as part of its social legacy project in Rio.  This included the installation of wireless internet, upgrades to the furniture, repainting of the interior of the building as well as the volleyball court and over 3,000 Reals ($900) of new books.  It was the FIVB’s very first hospitality House at an Olympic Games and it was the only International Federation to have one.
 
The FIVB started the work at the school in February, six months before the Games. Working at night, on weekends and holidays, the workers made the reform without disrupting classes. The children went back to school earlier this month knowing that their school welcomed some of volleyball’s top players and personalities in one of the most successful initiatives at the Olympics. They will now benefit every day from the improvements made to the school by the FIVB.


The school children were an integral part of the Volleyball House project

FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F° said: “We are delighted to win this award; it is humbling to have this recognition for our commitment to leave a sustainable legacy in Rio.  The idea was to have a place where we could welcome the volleyball community, leverage business and promote our events. But that was not enough. We wanted to go beyond. The Volleyball House should fulfill another role, to spread our philosophy: to make volleyball the number one family sport entertainment in the world. So there was nothing better than to choose a school where the children could participate in the process and, ultimately, benefit from a completely renovated and more inviting college for the daily study of 600 students.”

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