A thought crossed my mind early in 2013, “Hey! The All-Star Game is coming to New York and I’m a teacher, maybe I should volunteer to work the event!” After I realized that would most likely mean watching other people have fun at All-Star Fan Fest, I changed my mind and just went as a fan instead.
There are a lot of reasons why I did that, but mostly because of how I value volunteer work. Volunteering is something I take seriously. I was in Alpha Phi Omega, a Co-ed Service Fraternity throughout college and encourage my students to find ways to give back and support our community. I felt weird volunteering for the MLB because first it would be self-serving my interests in baseball but more because it would be donating my time to “the man”. What would I really accomplish volunteering for the All-Star Game? I’m not really helping a major issue and I’m saving a giant entity, the MLB money under the guise of putting a good face on for my city.
(It is a good time to point out that I’m not upset with people who do volunteer, just upset at the system that it has become).
In the end, if a major sports league wants to show a nice gesture to its host city, why not pay the members of the city who come out to work for it? That’s what is happening with the All-Star Volunteer now with a class action lawsuit.
Tomorrow is the Super Bowl and if you’ve been around the NY / NJ area, you’ve probably seen the Superbowl volunteers in their bright, yellow VISA jackets. These are good people (I’m friends with at least one) and I’m glad they got some nice swag (jacket, shirts, hats and gloves) but they are also putting in a lot of work and gave up the rights to pay to do this. The difference with the Super Bowl volunteers and the All-Star volunteers is depending where you are placed, you might not get to experience anything related to the event. For example, I live in Brick City (Newark), home of historic Penn Station (it is always so awkward when tourists get on the PATH train at the World Train Center, thinking it is going to Penn Station Newark, which I’ve seen happen twice in the last 3 years, and I only ride the path 4-6 times a month). I saw 6 Super Bowl volunteers in the station today.
Why?
What use are they there? Especially with the HEAVY amount of Port Authority officers there that could have easily done their jobs.
I also saw a volunteer reading on a Kindle at his post (I’m not revealing in what state/train station/street to protect this person). I don’t blame him! It was utterly boring! No one was concerned with the Superbowl where this person was and if someone has the same post tomorrow night, they won’t even be able to see the game!
It feels weird complaining about people volunteering in the sense that I’m complaining that they don’t receive a lot of benefit. It almost contradicts the definition of volunteering. When you consider though that the NFL is a tax-exempt organization due to a provision in the 501 c6 rules that include football leagues, it feels like a slap in the face.
Personally, I feel volunteering for the Superbowl host community is like volunteering at a Walmart on Black Friday (which I hope doesn’t exist). Both situations you have to be truly altruistic, you are trying to make people have a more positive experience, and you are, maybe without noticing it, helping one of the richest organizations/corporations keep more profit.
I truly hope the Superbowl volunteers have had a good experience being part of the event and I also hope that next year, in Arizona, the NFL starts to pay their workers because when you volunteer for the NFL, you are an unpaid worker.
