The Archdiocese of Atlanta is looking for a few good men … and women.

Volunteers are needed to help at the annual Eucharistic Congress, which will be held June 9 at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park.

Consistently, over the past several years, more than 20,000 people have attended the Congress, and volunteers are essential in helping the event run smoothly.

The day features nationally and internationally known speakers in several tracks. There is a general track, a Hispanic track, a teen track, kid track, a deaf track and a Vietnamese track.

Sue Stubbs, volunteer coordinator, said that every track needs volunteers but that the “kid track always has the greatest need.”

Stubbs said that unlike earlier years of the Eucharistic Congress, volunteers in the kid track are only needed to supervise and participate with the children.

“We have a ministry that puts on the track, so the volunteers get to actually experience the track with the kids. We did that for the first time last year, and it worked really well,” Stubbs said. “Everyone had a blast last year. It’s a great way to experience the Congress with your kids, if you have kids that age.”

Stubbs said that many of the volunteers, like Ted McAllister, a parishioner from the Church of St. Benedict in Duluth, wrote to her and expressed their enjoyment of their volunteer experience last year.

“I just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful day on Saturday. I was fortunate enough to be a floater with the kids track. This was my first Congress and hopefully not my last,” McAllister wrote. “I wanted to thank you for allowing me to volunteer.”

The deadline for volunteering is April 30. All volunteers will be required to have a background screening and complete the Safe Environment Training process.

“The size of the kid track will depend on the number of volunteers we have signed up to help by April 30th,” Stubbs said. “It’s hard to have to turn kids away at the kid track because we have reached the maximum number the room can hold due to fire safety regulations (800), but it’s sad to have to turn kids away because we don’t have enough volunteers to supervise them.”

Those wishing to help out can find a volunteer form on the archdiocesan Web site, located at www.archatl.com/congress. And Stubbs wants to encourage both returning and first-time volunteers.

“If you’ve been to a Congress before, it gives you a different perspective,” she said. “It really helps you to appreciate what goes into it. There’s no cost to participants, but it is paid for by the efforts of others. It’s a long day, but even though the work is hard and you’re tired at the end of it, you feel great that you have worked together to put on such a fantastic event.”