While many people may consider a road trip or a week at the lake as good options for summer holiday plans, a man from Steinbach has decided to rather spend long days in noisy gyms and on busy streets stuck in traffic.

If you are looking for Perry Reimer this week, he will be one of the hundreds of volunteers wearing neon green shirts at the Power Smart Manitoba Summer Games in Steinbach. Reimer says the volunteer spirit is in his blood, noting as soon as he learned the Games were coming to Steinbach he knew he wanted to help out.

"I think that instead of sitting on the sidelines, it's a good thing to be able to go out there and help the community in ways that they need," says Reimer.

But Reimer isn't only helping out one or two days this week. In fact, he has signed up for 57 hours worth of volunteer time. So far this week he has helped with VIP transportation and tours and merchandise sales. Later this week he will assist at the volleyball venues.

Operating one of the transportation vehicles has allowed Reimer to meet people from across Manitoba. He says as someone born and raised in Steinbach, this gives him great pride to be able to show visitors around and give them some of the history of the area.

Monday afternoon, Reimer had the opportunity of being chauffeur for the host committee of the upcoming Winter Games in Virden.

"They were just awestruck at our facilities," says Reimer.

He notes they especially liked the aquatic centre and new track as well as the addition at Steinbach Regional Secondary School and newly built Clearspring Middle School.

"They were really trying to get their head around what was involved in pulling this off," he says. "I think in regards to the few hours I spent with them, they had a true appreciation for the magnitude and the number of volunteers that are needed to pull something like this off."

Reimer admits when he first learned that one thousand volunteers would be needed to run this event, he could not understand why so many. But he says it is now evident that the volunteer opportunities for something like this are endless.

He says a highlight was taking in the Opening Ceremonies and also seeing the excitement from athletes while working at the merchandise tent.

Reimer says he will will take another week off work next week just to recover but says he plans to do a lot more of this in the future.