A local woman is back in the Limestone City after rubbing shoulders with soccer’s elite at the FIFA Ballon d’Or awards in Zurich, Switzerland, earlier this month.

Shannon Claggett, whose day job is associate dean of applied science and computing at St. Lawrence College, was given the Fair Play Award as part of a gala evening on Jan. 12.

The award was given out to Claggett, who was representing Canadian volunteers who helped run the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Canada last summer.

Claggett worked for a week in Toronto performing a variety of volunteer tasks.

Other representative volunteers from their home countries who helped at the World Cup held in Brazil, the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco, and the 2014 U-17 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica, were also honoured.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime event. I’m not really sure why I was chosen out of all the Canadian volunteers, but it certainly was special,” Claggett said while back at work this week at St. Lawrence College.

At the gala, awards were also given out to the top player, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, top female player, Nadine Kessler of Germany, top coaches of male and female teams, the best goal of the year, top 11 male players and President’s award.

In the past, the Fair Play Award has been given to fans of clubs and national teams, as well as associations and individual players.

It was last awarded to the Afghanistan Football Federation.

According to the Ballon d’Or website, competition volunteers are unsung heroes who play an indispensable role and promote the spirit of fair play.

“These thousands of remarkable individuals set an example to us all.” FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke said in a speech at the event. “They give their time and energy to help us deliver the best World Cups possible. They bring enthusiasm and warmth to our tournaments. They make our tournaments special. And without these inspiring people, we would be unable to stage our events around the globe.”

Claggett said upwards of 10,000 volunteers worked at all of the FIFA events in 2014.

She said volunteers play an important role at the events

“They have a lot of staff that they pay to do all kinds of things, but there’s just not enough people that way,” Claggett said.

Volunteers do such tasks as local drivers who are aware of their own city, greeters, volunteers also help set up the field, logistics, deal with the media, direct people.

“Just to make sure an event runs smoothly you need volunteers.”

Claggett has volunteered locally with Kingston United and Cataraqui Clippers with her children as both a coach and manager.

She’s looking forward to the 2015 Women’s World Cup this summer across Canada.

“With the World Cups coming last year and this year, I thought that would be a once-in-a-lifetime event. I’d like to be at that type of event, I’d like to see what goes on, I’d like to see those players and I’d like to see that caliber of play, so I thought I’d volunteer.”

At the U-20 women’s event last summer, Claggett was a volunteer manager.

“I basically learned every job that there was in case something happened so that I could do it.”

She didn’t have to jump into other roles but filled a team leadership role for the volunteers at the event.

It was a quick trip to Zurich for Claggett, but she did have a chance to tour FIFA World Cup headquarters.

She also got her photo taken with Ronaldo as well as the top woman player, Kessler, and American player Abby Wambach.

There was a trophy presented, but Claggett had to give it back. She did, however, received an official FIFA soccer ball signed by all of the award winners.

And she said it will proudly be on display in her home, and not given to her children to practise with.

ian.macalpine@sunmedia.ca

Twitter.com @IanMacAlpine