SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Two Yellowknife McDonald's employees will be in Vancouver and Whistler as part of the restaurant's Olympic champion crew. Joel Church and Victoria Ollerhead were chosen from more than 77,000 McDonald's employees to work at the two Olympic villages.

Joel Church will be representing Yellowknife as part of McDonald's Olympic champion crew at the 2010 Olympics in B.C. this month. - Adrian Lysenko/NNSL photo

"It's pretty inspiring," said Church, who is the assistant manager at McDonald's on Old Airport Road. "It really is hard for me to put it in words."

Across Canada, 300 restaurant employees were chosen for their excellence in teamwork and customer service.

Ollerhead travelled to Vancouver on Feb. 1 and Church, departs to Whistler on Monday, Feb. 8. The two have round-trip airfare and accommodations paid for by McDonald's and will be attending Olympic venues as well participating in sightseeing and other activities.

"As soon as we arrived at the airport they treated us like royalty," said Ollerhead, speaking from Vancouver on Monday. "I was expecting some shabby hotel but this place is better than my apartment."

Ollerhead will be attending the Canadian men's preliminary hockey game against Norway.

The pair found out they would be travelling to B.C. in a company newsletter last August after their manager Al Nielsen nominated them.

"It felt great to hear that they're going," said Nielsen. "Not only are they representing the restaurant but Yellowknife."

Church has been working for McDonald's for six years while Ollerhead has been an employee for four years.

The two employees are in a relationship and started dating while both working at the restaurant. Although they are going to be working at different locations, Church said he hopes to be able to get together on Valentine's Day.

Both Church and Ollerhead will head home, departing from Vancouver, on March 1.

"I felt really honoured to be going out of 300 people," said Ollerhead. "It's an amazing experience."