Concessions on the Fly
Our middle son, Matthew, is our swimmer. He’s been swimming age group for many years. This year is his first year swimming for his high school team – and boy are things different! Unlike age group, we literally have no budget.
Recently, we were challenged with pulling concessions for our biggest meet, an invitational, together in under a week. We knew that the invitational was coming. I had already sent an email out to the team with a list of what we needed and hoped for donations. I also made plans to shop for concession necessities that were not to be donated on the day before; assuming that I would just turn the receipts in, as I always had for any event that required concessions (School, Age Group swim, etc). However, the Sunday night before the Saturday meet, the coach informed me that all concessions HAD to be donated. I also learned that not only were we to cover food donations but we were also responsible for napkins, plates, bowls, spoons, etc. Whatever we were going to need to serve the food. No reimbursements were to be given.
Wait… WHAT??
There were 7 teams attending this invitational. That means we were hosting roughly 140 swimmers, plus spectators…Not to mention we needed an officials/coaches hospitality area. I had been previously told that the Athletic Dept. would set up the hospitality area, things changed and that was not to be the case, either.
After a small meltdown, because up until this point we only had a case of water, an 8 pack of gatorade and a crock pot of soup donated, I grabbed my yellow legal pad and my computer and got straight to work.
Thankfully, I already had my donation letter typed up. All I had to do was decide who I was going to ask to donate and what I was asking them to donate. With the help of my husband and Matthew, we came up with about ten potential donors. We asked for all food donations. I explained that this was our biggest fundraiser and that our team literally had no budget so we were in need of donations to make our meet run smoothly.
It was a cold, rainy Sunday night, but at 8:30pm, Matthew and I were out running around distributing these letters to businesses. We didn’t know what to expect, but were hoping for the best.
I began calling the businesses on Tuesday. That same day, I received a message that one of our local grocery stores had a $50.00 gift card for us. Woohoo!! I was excited. I had thought, in my mind, that they would probably donate because they always have, but I wasn’t going to count my chickens before they hatched.
Not until Thurs. did things finally start coming together. One of our large super-stores called to let me know that we were given a $100 gift card, Pepsi gave us drinks donations, and Dunkin’ Donuts donated two dozen donuts.
Wendy’s wasn’t allowed to donate food but they gave us things that were even more valuable – bowls, cups, plates, potato boats, napkins, and packages of utensils! My friend, Karyn had previously made a trip to GFS to pick up some bowls and cups so we were completely set:) What a miracle, to say the least.
Paul and I made a quick revision on what we could offer in concessions and on Friday evening, list in hand, we set out to get the goods!
$150 may not sound like a lot, but let me tell you, it is! Plus, not having to buy serving vessels, we were golden. There was even a little money left over to play with in the way of buying extras like candy and big dill pickles.
The next morning, we were up bright and early to get to the pool to set up. About three weeks prior, I had set it up with Smoothie King to come out and sell their smoothies at our event. We were to get $1 off each smoothie sold. They were already there, ready to go.
There were a few hiccups. One was that we found out that there was a conference wrestling meet going on at the same time. At first, we thought we were going to have dueling concessions. It became clear though, that WE were the only concessions. Little bit of a panic, do we have enough food?? I was already very stressed out because I wasn’t able to visually check on the concessions during the whole meet because I was announcing and helping run the meet with my husband and another parent.
After the meet, when Paul and I finally made it down to the concession stand, we were shocked at the number of people who were in line! Our High School National Honor Society (who had been manning it) were on their way out, so we jumped in with the help of our oldest, Jamie. We were there another good 45 minutes selling to the opposing swimmers and wrestlers. We knew the numbers were going to be good but I never expected the amount when the coach told me the following Monday:) SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!! Let me tell you, I’ve been doing this many years in various positions and under tight deadlines, but never this tight. I was completely blown away. Without these donations and the help of my wonderful family and volunteers, it would have never happened.
Six hundred and fifty dollars…. Woah.
Moral of the story – fight to the death:)
Speak soon!
take care,
~kat
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