Jazzfest –A St. Catherine Fun(d)Fest!

By Carol Lynch

As Spring begins to bloom in our community, people begin to head outdoors to work in their gardens, to crawfish boils, and to the hot tunes of cool jazz at the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, often simply called JazzFest!

This annual two-week festival welcomes visitors from around the world to the New Orleans Fairgrounds. Within the confines of the Fairgrounds, these visitors gather to hear different facets of Jazz music played on 10 different stages. They wander through booths of talented local and international artisans looking for just that right piece of jewelry, T-shirt, poster or sculpture to add to their personal collections or remind them of their visit to this fun spring festival. They sample the best of the varied regional foods New Orleans is famous for, such as gumbo, etouffee, jambalaya and alligator-on-a-stick. And next door to the crawfish bread, they will find the "coldest beer and soft drinks" on the grounds at our very own St. Catherine of Siena drink booth, headed up by our Men’s Club.

The Fairgrounds

St. Catherine of Siena is one element of the local economy that is supported by the Jazzfest. In exchange for volunteer services, the Fairgrounds contributes a percentage of the profits directly back to the Men’s Club to be used to support various parish and school organizations. The owners of the New Orleans Fairgrounds, Bryan and Vicky Krantz, wanted to give something back to the local community, and they are proud of the twelve different non-profit organizations they are able to help. According to Vicky, "There are so many groups that work so hard to raise funds to benefit many different causes and all that the volunteers have to do is show up to work for 2 weekends. They’re helping us and we’re helping them. It’s a good partnership."

The partnership works for the Fairgrounds in another important way. The throngs of visitors take a toll on the racetrack, especially the areas around the two most popular stages. The drink booths are the Fairground’s source of revenue used to restore the surface of the track to a quality that will ensure the safety of the jockeys and horses that run on them. The main track has to be sanded and re-sodded. The turf course has to be re-seeded so that all of the surfaces are kind and forgiving for the equine athlete.

"Bujol Bins" -- The Cool Secret

The partnership with the St. Catherine of Siena Men’s Club began in 1997. Jerry Madere, who was President at the time, saw the opportunity to take on the drink booth as a replacement fundraiser for the weekly bingo games that the board had decided to discontinue due to shrinking profits. After discussing all of the pros and cons, the Board unanimously voted to forge ahead under some very tight time constraints. Jerry remembers, "In a matter of 6-7 weeks, we organized a method of cooling beer and soft drinks in special ‘Bujol Bins’, named for their creator, Steve Bujol. This bin and barrel system is our ‘secret weapon’ which keeps the product very cool! We put together ‘Booth Guidelines’ which are instructions outlining all aspects of work and descriptions of each position. The we started recruiting volunteers for the 7 days of the festival. We also were determined that all workers would get a shirt so we could be distinguished from the other booth workers. With a few refinements, this system is still in place today and appears to be working quite well in providing cold beer, soft drinks and water to our customers."

Hard Work Pays Off

Jazzfest is definitely a concentrated effort. While many other non-profit groups around the New Orleans metropolitan area take on fundraising projects which require many weekends of commitment (such as staffing concession stands at Saint’s games), our Jazzfest efforts are focused on seven days of festival over two consecutive weekends. Jazzfest attracts 500,000 visitors a year, often as many as 100,000 a day, which is about as many people as the Saints draw to the Superdome during a winning season. It has been estimated that approximately 3,000 man-hours go into ticket distribution, parking arrangements, volunteer recruitment, staffing at the booth itself and supplying all of the necessary equipment and tools at the site as well as dismantling it all afterwards.

For all of the volunteer effort put into the drink booth over the four years, the partnership has certainly proved worthwhile. In 1999, the $10,875.37 raised from Jazzfest made up approximately 34% of the funds raised by the Men’s Club. This spring, partly due to an increase in the price of the drinks and the hard work of the volunteers, the Men’s Club treasury was increased by approximately $13,000. This total will make up almost 42% of the total of the Men’s Club budget. The drink booth also has some front-end expenses, approximately $4,000 this year. The Men’s Club provides the food, drinks and T-shirts for the workers as well as some basic supplies. The product (beer, soft drinks, water and ice) is provided and space is provided.

There are other benefits to this partnership with the Fairgrounds other than the obvious donated funds. Volunteers work a busy 5-6 hour shift and are rewarded generously for their efforts. There are no financial expenses to park or to gain entry to the festivities on the day they work. Volunteers can come early, work their shift and stay as late as they choose to enjoy the sights and sounds. They are provided with food and drinks while working and private restroom facilities when on-, or off-, duty. (Imagine, no lines!) There are intrinsic benefits as well. When asked about what they enjoyed the most about volunteering this year, Stacy and Don Wheat both said, "We enjoyed meeting and talking to people from all over the world. We had so much fun, we were disappointed to learn our shift was over."

Jerry Madere, the Chairman Emeritus of the St. Catherine of Siena Jazzfest Drink Booth Committee, expresses well the best reason for working Jazzfest, "You get to see people from all over our Parish, not just the Men’s Club or Co-op members, successfully working together for a common goal and having a very good time doing it! It has never ceased to amaze me how our parishioners, when called upon to roll up their sleeves and pull together, will show what a wonderful and giving family they can be."

SIDEBAR

From the 2000 President of the Men’s Club, Louis Bienvenu:

"Over the last four years, we’ve had some terrific, hardworking volunteers participate in the drink booth sales at Jazzfest—Men’s Club members, parents, parishioners and friends! There are too many to list here individually, but you know who you are…Thank you! This opportunity would not have been successful without you!

We want to thank the Fairgrounds for the opportunity to partner with them. They took a chance on us, and we are most grateful for their faith!