During the past two weekends, 26 Trent geography students stopped visitors at 13 Ontario Winter Games venues in Peterborough and asked them 10 questions.

      Where were they from? How long would they stay? How much money would they spend?

      Their survey will be the first to determine the economic impact of the Winter Games on a host city. They are doing it for credit in a fourth-year honors research seminar course and they are doing it as official volunteers of the Winter Games. The survey will provide useful information for future games organizers, and practical experience and recognition for students (they will be listed as co-authors of the final report). And "the university is getting a positive image out of it," says professor Al Brunger.

      He approached city recreation co-ordinator Mary Gallop last year about doing the survey. These large events are often not studied because organizers are too busy, said Brunger. "Therefore they willingly accepted my offer" to do an economic-impact study, he said.

      Questioning visitors as they turned up for events was the biggest of three surveys Brunger's students are conducting. The other two will involve three students phoning Peterborough retailers and other commercial businesses and one student calling hotels, motels and bed-and-breakfast accommodations in a broader area to find out if trade increased during the games.

      Students will be presenting the results at an April 30 seminar. Then Brunger and Gallop will write a final report based on those results.

      Students in the course usually conduct surveys among themselves for their research project in Geography 470. This time they have had a chance to work on something that has more meaning, says Brunger and will benefit games organizers and the community.