Concessions at John Champe for sports are struggling to stay open due to multiple reasons that are affecting the process of selling their favorite snacks during the games.
After a great fall season last year when concessions were booming, they slowly began to face problems as the winter season began. Those in charge are finding it difficult to keep concessions open all on their own and want to fix the problems.
“Of course it is always the members and the staff that do all the work,” Booster Club President Gregory Spiller said. “Typically our game nights are very busy and it’s hard to keep everything afloat on our own sometimes.”
Primarily, Champe students and parents aren’t signing up to help out by volunteering their time to work the stands. Without people signing up and without the help of others, the concessions leaders are finding it hard to get people to come in during game days.
“Between both parents and students, we don’t have any volunteers,” Spiller said, “which is obviously a pretty big problem and it gets hard to do it all on our own because everyone in the club isn’t always free to help.”
The lack of participation is pretty shocking to the members of the Booster Club. This year was the first where they haven’t had an overflowing amount of students and parents who wanted to support their school community, but instead face people who seem to be avoiding lending a hand.
“I’m not really sure as to why people don’t want to be involved this year because typically people love to help,” Booster Club Concessions Chair Amanda Kann said. “Last year I think the senior class was very good at making sure they showed up and helped around. We really miss that this year.”
Without any solutions to their issues, unfortunately the club might have to continue to struggle to keep the stands open. They are hoping to get better at spreading the word and advertise in a way that intrigues Champe’s community.
“We have a new volunteer chair this year, Ms. Jennifer Kaskas, so hopefully she’ll be better with communicating, “Kann said. “I hope she makes an effort to bring in more students and also makes sure to talk to the coaches to get the parents of the athletes to help out while their children play.”
Along with this, as president, Spiller has goals for himself to help with the problem. He is trying to make it his mission to raise more awareness and he thinks that increasing communication will help.
“I want to make sure that the information is being spread using social media and having the school send the information out as well to get to the parents and the community,” Spiller said. “And it really is a blast working back here in concessions and I really want people to see how much fun we have.”
While trying to figure out why people don’t seem to have the interest to participate this year, the Booster Club has concluded that students have been slacking off a little more this year, at least when it comes to getting their volunteer hours.
“I’m not really sure as to why students, especially, arent coming out to show their support for their athletes and gain some volunteer hours out by lending a helping hand,” Kann said. “I think it could be that either students don’t care about their volunteer hours this year or are definitely getting them somewhere else.”
On the other hand, students don’t even seem to be aware of the problems the school has been facing or how they were needed for support. Many students say they have been overwhelmed with schoolwork and extracurricular activities to find time in their schedules.
“I had no clue that the concessions have been having problems with getting volunteers,” Sophomore Avni Vyas said. “I would have loved to help out and now that I know, I think I will make some time too.”
After this rough start, those in charge of concession hope that they will be able to turn the year around and spread the word. They want to make sure that their students and the community have a great time at their favorite sporting events.
“I think we are doing a good amount to change things and I hope that things do start to go more uphill,” Spiller said. “Make sure to come out and volunteer!”
