Editors note: this is part of a series of features which will be run in the Star throughout the next six weeks leading up to the 2007 Canada Winter Games.

They work long hours, put in an incredible amount of effort, are often underappreciated, and in some cases, don't even get paid.

They don't get the glory of amateur athletes, or the money and fame of professional athletes.

Yet most sports officials will tell you they love what they do.

'It's the people, the other officials and the involvement with the athletes,' states Yukoner Marg White, when asked what keeps her drawn to officiating.

White recalled one of her favourite experiences as an official in curling watching the Suzanne Gaudet rink from Prince Edward Island climb the junior ranks from the bottom of the heap to the top, winning two national titles in 2001 and 2002.

'You can see how some of these kids advance,' she explains. 'It makes it all so worthwhile.'

If her name isn't familiar to you, White's face probably is. She's spent more than a decade volunteering her time as an official in athletics, curling, bike races and pretty much any other sport going on in the territory.

White is one of the major officials who are actually from the Yukon that will be thrown into action at the 2007 Canada Winter Games in February. It's taken her countless hours to achieve her Level 4 certificate as a curling official, but next month, she'll certainly put it to good use, as the Canadian Curling Association's technical delegate for the men's and women's curling events.

In fact, White will be the highest ranking local official at the Games, the only one representing a national sports organization (NSO). She'll oversee the events and make sure everything runs smoothly. There will be a head official from Alberta, also a Level 4, but if any of the officials have major problems or concerns, they'll come to her.

'It's something I've been working at for a long time,' says White. 'The first event I went to as an official outside of the territory was in 1990. It's not easy to get to Level 4. I've put in 16 years.'

All major officials at the Canada Games have past experience in whichever sport they are assigned to and have been designed by the NSO. There are a total of 526 major officials required for the Games, 431 of which will be flying in from across the country.

Stacy Halonen, sport manager for the host society, says the Canada Games mandate requires that they recruit and train as many local officials as possible.

'Over the past two years, we've been sending people out for training and holding clinics here to qualify as many people as possible,' he explains. 'Originally, we had aimed for 30 or 40 local major officials, but as of right now, there are 95. We're really happy with that.'

The host society also tried to recruit from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, because of the pan-Northern approach to these Games, says Halonen.

'We're trying to recruit the best people that are the closest, after local,' he adds. 'So we have a lot of officials from B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan. Some NSOs require officials from every province, though, so there will be some from the East as well.'

In addition to the major officials, more than 1,000 volunteers will serve as minor officials at the Games, performing tasks such as score keeping and packing snow on the trails, and the majority of those volunteers are local.

Halonen says there are a couple of sports which are using almost entirely local officials, such as curling, cross-country skiing and biathlon.

In fact, says White, only two Outside officials will be involved in the curling competition. As well as the head official from Alberta, there will be a bilingual media relations representative from Nova Scotia.

'We're probably the people with the least amount (of Outside officials),' she says. 'I think it's a sign of what we've done for training over the years and what competitions we've held here, like the mixed nationals. There were no Outside officials brought up for that.'

In cross-country skiing, there are just four officials flying in from down south. One is a technical delegate, appointed by Cross Country Canada, and then an assistant. Then there is a special photo-finish camera operator and a sport information officer, also appointed by the NSO.

The technical delegate for the Games is Al Maddox, who actually helped design the cross-country trails at Mount McIntyre.

'There's an events and technical committee at the national level and they look at the qualified people available and decide,' explains Claude Chabot, the president of Cross Country Yukon and the sport chair for the Games.

'It's a pretty small pool of people for an event like this. Al is an Olympic official and very highly experience. He's probably the highest-ranked (cross-country skiing) official in the country.'

The minimum level of qualification for an official at the Canada Games varies from sport to sport. For example, an observer and timer would only need to be Level 1 for curling while a supervising official is Level 2 and there are also Level 3 officials.

In men's hockey, major officials need to be Level 4. The referees for the Games will hail from the Canadian Hockey League made up of Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. They are some of the highest ranking referees in the country and all of them are appointed by Hockey Canada.

'This level of officiating (at the Games) is just like the level of officiating at the national championships, or even the worlds,' says White. 'We want the same standard.

'It's about integrity, the rules and fairness, treating everyone the same. The officiating is as much a part of the sport as the sport is.'

Officiating at the Canada Games is all volunteer, which means referees like those from the CHL will be taking a pay cut to travel to Whitehorse.

'With the major officials, their accommodation is taken care of, their travel is taken care of and they get a per diem for food, but they don't actually get a salary,' says Halonen.

It's more about experience and prestige, for these officials, than money.

'They're doing it because they love sport. A lot of them have taken their holidays to be a part of it. So we really appreciate their support.'