Stadium Clean-Up

The University of Iowa Hawkeye football team play their home games in the ever-so-cool Kinnick Stadium. The stadium was named after 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick.  Kinnick is a big stadium. Well, it's not as big as other college stadiums, but it's pretty big to me. Especially when I have to clean it up the morning after game days! The Iowa City Sports Booster Club was able to score a big project to help the Iowa City schools raise money for their athletic programs. The project is cleaning the inside of Kinnick stadium the day after game days. This includes picking up people's spilt popcorn, frozen lemonade (which aren't frozen anymore), pop, nachos, tiny liquor bottles that were snuck in, water bottles, tickets and programs left behind, etc.

All coaches and athletes in the Iowa City Community School District and their parents are encouraged to go. Some athletic directors make it mandatory their coaches go and rightfully so. Some coaches make it mandatory the athletes go and help out which I completely agree with. When I was in high school I did it. I hated it. Especially when it got cold. I remember not being able to feel my fingers while sweeping through the rows and just freezing my bum off! Ugh. It was not fun, but it was something I had to do for my volleyball team and for the athletics at my school. I thought the only good thing about stadium clean-up was the FREE donuts afterwards. They were good. When everyone would show up clean-up would only take an hour or so, but if people didn't show up it took longer. The donuts at the end always kept me going! Ha.

Back when I was in high school we would throw everything away. Today it is much different. I still attend stadium clean-ups because I am a coach. Once I found out I had to go to these again when I started coaching I wanted to throw a fit and stomp around like a three year old. As mentioned above I wasn't a fan of them plus they were at 7:30 in the morning and I am NOT a morning person. As time went on (as I matured) I saw the real benefit of the clean-up so they don't bother me as much anymore (the donuts are still free!). Anyway, back to what I was saying before. When I was in high school we would throw everything away and wouldn't recycle anything. This bothered my mom and she would try to keep things to recycle them afterwards. Such a good mommy. Today they have bags specifically for recycling and bags for trash. It has gotten so much better green wise and I am glad. I am a green person and love to recycle! They show people what can be recycled and what is trash. I was impressed by it. I forgot to mention they give us brooms, gloves, shovels, and leaf blowers to help with the clean-up. The leaf blowers make it a whole lot easier rather than trying to sweep everything to the middle. We usually have a technique to it. Some people have recycling bags and go around picking up only recyclable items. The rest sweep or blow the rest of the trash to the middle steps then we sweep it down and shovel it up to put it in the trash bag. We're pros at it by now.

After our second stadium clean-up of the year this morning I noticed something that really bothered me that I hadn't noticed back in the day. I couldn't believe how many parents sit in their cars waiting for the kids to get done cleaning. They drop their kids off then park the car and read a magazine or book in the car until the kid is done. Ugh! Parents are ENCOURAGED to help. By helping clean the stadium they are supporting their child, their child's school, the school's athletic department, and they are setting a good example for their child. My parents ALWAYS helped and a number of my teammate's parents helped as well. It was almost a fun social event when everyone is there and working together.

This is how I feel about those parents who just sit in their car.......really? Get out of the car and help!