Many volunteers at the 2013 Labrador Winter Games in Happy Valley-Goose Bay have never experienced winter sports before because their home country — the Philippines — doesn't get winter at all.

Irene Tear is spending some of her time registering athletes for different events. She said taking part in the games has helped her feel like she belonged.

"It's a good thing for me to be a part of this because it makes me — make us — feel that we belong to the community," Tear said.

"This is nice, it's so nice, and it's nice to see all the communities coming in and doing this event. We're so happy to be a part of it and we have a bunch of Filipino volunteers here, which is a good thing."

While Tear is volunteering, her significant other is over at the snowshoe races.

"He's a distraction to my work because he wants me to take pictures of him while I'm registering people," she said.

Tear said that even though the cold is a little unpleasant, she would tell family and friends back in the Philippines to come enjoy winter.

"I'll tell them to come here during winter, because they have lots of good things to enjoy winter," she said.

"You have snowshoes, [we] don't have it there — we don't even know what it is — so this is the first time that we see something like this. It's a good experience — it's a different, but wonderful, experience"

The games run from March 3 until March 9 this year.

Be sure to check out CBC's coverage of the 2013 Labrador Winter Games.