Churches Will Fundraise at Packers' Playoff Game
Churches in Green Bay, Wis. are prepared raise extra money while they cheer for their hometown heroes' first home playoff game since 2008.
Green Bay Packers' home games at Lambeau Field always mean additional income for worthy causes like seminary training, Catholic schools and parish budgets, according to Catholic News Science.
Home games for the Packers reportedly bring in over $8 million for hotels, restaurants and other businesses and several groups are looking forward to earning some of that money from this weekends Divisional Playoff match-up against the New York Giants.
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Several hours before kickoff, hundreds of volunteers from different places gather at the stadium and work in the cold to provide fans with food, comfort and souvenirs. Some vendors end up staying at the game for 12 hours.
"It's a 12-hour day from the time you leave home until you get back home," said Mike Bushman, coordinator of operations at a food booth for Knights of Columbus council.
The booth serves hundreds of fans from both teams with French fries, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, pizza, hot chocolate, beer and soda. Bushman says that it's an in-house restaurant.
The Knights council is one of many non-profit groups- both religious and non-religious- that bring food service groups to Lambeau field. Additional groups like Catholic schools and parishes raise funds by parking cars, handing out rental seats, souvenirs and game programs.
Bushman believes that, without tips, his council team could earn at least $600. Funds raised at Packers' games are used for purposes like funding training at seminaries for the Dioceses of Green Bay, according to CNS.
The Knights' Council also uses funds from games to help run a Catholic-run food pantry in Menasha and a food program in Oshkosh.
Volunteers from the All Saints Catholic Church in Denmark help to run the Packer Pro Shop and earn $100 a game bagging purchases for fans.
Louise Reetz, coordinator for the game-day volunteers and a fundraising committee called Parish Funding, said that the money goes to keep their parish alive, according to CNS.
"We have eight volunteers for each game, so that's $800 we earn for each game. That's very important to us," Reetz said. "So it's awesome that we are having playoff games."
Volunteers will have to brave harsh elements when serving fans this weekend. People are already being paid to help clear Lambeau field, which is covered by snow after winter storms hit the eastern edges of Wisconsin, according to The New Jersey Ledger. The Packers are looking for about 450 people to help shovel out the snow on Friday morning.
They will be paid $10 an hour and must be at least 15 years old.
