“I just wanted to help out where I could” – experience the 2024 Memorial Cup presented by Dow as a volunteer
Winning the bid to host the Memorial Cup is one thing.
Putting it on is another.
Organizers have hit the ground running, however, launching a massive effort to acquire the estimated 500 volunteers needed to help pull off the 11-day event, set to be held in Saginaw May 23-June 2.
“You don’t have to have any hockey knowledge to volunteer,” said Cathy Tafel, volunteer co-chair for the 2024 Memorial Cup presented by Dow Host Organizing Committee (HOC). “But you do need to be willing and committed.”
There are no set hour requirements and organizers say they’ll even try to schedule you in an area with friends and family, if that’s your desire. Volunteers – ages 16 or older – are needed for everything from transportation to security, event support to hospitality.
“Don’t just sign up, you’ve got to show up,” said Tafel, who is no stranger to organizing volunteers. She and fellow Memorial Cup HOC co-chair, Mitzi Brown, have organized 200-300 volunteers for the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, a women’s professional golf tournament held annually in Midland.
Why volunteer?
“It’s a great opportunity. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event. It really is,” Tafel said. “And we’re going to need everybody we can get.”
More than 200 volunteers have already signed up, including Rick Lovely of Bay City.
“I just wanted to help out where I could,” the Saginaw Spirit fan said. “I thought I’d help out because I know it’s a big event. They’re going to need all-hands-on-deck, so to speak, so I just thought I’d toss my name in there to help where I could.”
“I thought it would be a good way to meet fans from other cities too.”
Lovely says he doesn’t mind driving in from Bay City and even hopes to help others with his knowledge of the community.
“My wife and I drive all around the area so I thought (volunteering) would be a way to help people – recommending restaurants or whatever to people or getting them from point A to point B,” he said.
Freeland resident Sarah Brooks said she couldn’t pass up the chance to be a part of something this big coming to the region.
“It’s a great opportunity for our community to be able to display ourselves for a giant stage and to be able to be a part of that and help is just amazing,” she said. “This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make an impact like this and I think we need to take advantage of it.”
Brooks, the mother of two young girls and a communications and public affairs employee at Corteva, said she’s proud to help.
“This is a great time to not only show off Saginaw and the entire region but this is going to help Saginaw grow,” she said. “And all the things that are being done to set the stage for this event, I’m proud to be able to say that I’m a part of that.”
When signing up to volunteer, people can select different types of work but Brooks is willing to go wherever she’s needed.
“I’m willing to do anything,” she said.
Volunteering for the Memorial Cup does not mean you will get free access to the hockey games but it does have some perks.
You’ll get your own Memorial Cup shirt, and for every shift you volunteer, your name will be entered to win some amazing prizes at a volunteer appreciation event to be held at the conclusion of the Memorial Cup.
“We have so many different opportunities. We need many different skill sets,” Brown said. “We have opportunities that are behind the scenes along with being the first person all visitors see when they enter the campus of Fan Fest.”
So what are you waiting for? Join us in making the 2024 Memorial Cup presented by Dow the best it can be by clicking on the link below to sign up today!
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