FORT KENT – It took a World Cup event to get Scott Voisine to go outside in the cold.

The student services director at the University of Maine at Fort Kent will be the first to admit the outside is something he enjoys far more while viewing it from the inside.

But last week he and more than 100 UMFK students, faculty and staff caught biathlon fever.

In all, the university issued 120 special UMFK credentials to everyone from students, who opted to remain on campus to volunteer their time during the spring break, to staff, who took vacation time to help out during the 2004 Biathlon World Cup last week.

“It’s been a busy campus for one that’s on break,” Voisine said Saturday while waiting for the start of activities at the 10th Mountain Ski Center. “I can’t believe how awesome this all is. I’m even enjoying being outside and cheering.”

From the start, Voisine said, officials at UMFK knew they had facilities, staff and expertise useful for the biathlon event.

A campuswide committee was formed with various personnel heading up areas such as security, technology, food service, public relations and housing.

“We even had some alumni who came back to help out,” Voisine said. “Students stayed around to work in the dining, and my entire residence life staff was here.”

UMFK’s newest residence hall – half of which remains under construction – served as the event’s athletes’ village.

A week ago Sunday, when biathletes from 24 countries arrived, they were greeted by Voisine’s staff.

Several areas of the campus – including the residence hall and several office spaces – were put off limits to the general public and, in some cases, UMFK staff.

“We decided the best way to handle this was to do our own credentialing,” Voisine said.

The 120 volunteers with credentials from UMFK were in addition to the 1,100 athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers and media with credentials authorized by the biathlon committee.

Annette Grant, UMFK administrative assistant in the registrar’s office and a volunteer in charge of credentialing, saw each and every one of them.

“It was crazy,” she said as she watched the final day of competition Saturday. “We went nonstop from 7 in the morning to 10 at night [last] Monday.”

The first day of issuing credentials, Grant said, she and her crew had 975 people show up for their official identification badges.

Sharon Johnson, dean of information services, was busy handling the several areas around campus with designated Internet access sites for the athletes.

“We were really more swamped than we had thought,” Johnson said Sunday morning. “We knew people would want to use the computers, but not like this.”

Johnson said thanks to her crew of students and technology staff they were able to keep up with the needs of the biathletes and provide live video streaming on the Internet – a first for the World Cup committee.

Biathlon involvement at UMFK reached the top when Richard Cost, campus president, was on-site at the event and participated in the Friday night parade, which took place during a snowstorm.

“My job was to dust the snow off the float as it went down Main Street,” Cost said, with a laugh. “I could not be more pleased with UMFK’s participation.”

UMFK was featured repeatedly nationwide in broadcasts on the Outdoor Living Network and on several European stations.

The university really came through, said Jason Parent, director of university relations.

“We were put to the test on the world stage,” Parent said, “and we passed with flying colors.”