By: Allison Pisching ('12)
A six-week winter intercession, to a typical OHIO undergraduate student, usually includes relaxing weekends at home, family cooking, and counting down the days until being back in Athens. For a typical OHIO Sports Ad graduate student, it’s a whole different story…
As my classmates and I departed in November for various vacations, family reunions, work experiences and in almost every state in the continental U.S., I found myself, yet again, packing up my bags and heading due east to our nation’s capital. After a seemingly never-ending lockout, a crazy summer, and a whirlwind of a season, I was able to rejoin the Community & Charitable Programs Department of the Washington Redskins to finish out the regular season with the team.
Through ups and downs, injuries, and the continuous talk of a starting quarterback, the Redskins were hard at work on and off the field when I returned to Ashburn, Virginia. While the regular season was winding down, holiday community programs hosted by the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation (WRCF) were just getting underway. In just a few short weeks I was able to witness, assist, and execute community programs that provided Thanksgiving meals to 3,500 families, winter coats to 300 2nd graders, collect $41,000 for the Touchdown for Tots campaign, and give Christmas presents to 1,100 kids.
Harvest Feast - The 9th annual Harris Teeter-Redskins “Harvest Feast” Presented by Ryan Homes provided families in Prince George’s County with the complete fixings for a Thanksgiving meal. Standing alongside Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder and General Manager Bruce Allen, Redskins players handed out more than 45,000 pounds of Harris Teeter turkeys and 110,000 pounds of packaged and fresh food from Operation Blessing to families in need in the area. My responsibilities included registering and checking in more than 400 volunteers who assisted with assembling the food baskets. During the event, I was responsible for coordinating all children’s visits with Santa Claus as well as the distribution of children’s gift bags. After the event, I organized special pickups to be delivered to shelters, organizations and churches that had members unable to attend the event.
Covered for the Holidays – I was given the task of organizing my own community service project this season and was able to execute, under the supervision of the Director of Community & Charitable Programs, the annual “Covered for the Holidays” event. With our sponsor, Macy’s, we provided 300 underserved area school children with winter coats, hats and gloves in a private shopping experience with Redskins players at the Macy’s at Metro Center in downtown Washington, D.C. These young students selected their perfect winter coat (from all sizes, colors and styles) knowing that they would be warm for the winter.
Touchdown for Tots – The Redskins took the Touchdown for Tots campaign to a new level this year, collecting over $41,000 at the December 11th Redskins vs. Patriots game at FedExField. Fans at the game also donated more than 1,380 toys to be distributed by the U.S. Marine Corps and the WRCF to children in the greater Washington D.C. area. The Touchdown for Tots campaign is a national project supported by 15 NFL teams. The toys and funds collected allowed over 5,100 children to unwrap a gift on Christmas morning in D.C. My duties in assisting with this campaign was to supervise a donation station outside the Comcast entrance to the stadium and then to organize and count, with a team of Marines, all monies received as donations at the Patriots game. Five hours and a hand full of paper cuts later, my task was complete.
Skins Santa Shoppe – In the last event of the holiday season for the WRCF, we transformed the Redskins locker room at FedExField into Santa’s Workshop where he and Mrs. Claus, with the help of U.S. Marines, Hogettes, and Redskins players, handed out a Christmas gift to over 1,100 deserving children from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
While it may not seem like my winter “break” was much of a break, I was still able to connect with some SportsAd Alumni, enjoy time with my family, and even attend an NFL game for fun. As industry professionals can relate, working in sports doesn’t stop for anything. This was my first official dose of the “lifestyle,” and knowing that I helped impact children and families at the holidays makes everything worthwhile.
