Zach Vargo

This past weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer at the 2009 Jacksonville Jazz Festival selling beverages.  We did it as a way to support the Mayport Navy League (a non-profit organization that supports the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard) by putting the word out about them and make some money.  I am not a big Jazz fan, but I thoroughly enjoyed the local artists who came out and performed.

I spent Friday evening setting up the booths in the pouring rain with another person.  We spent about 3 hours gathering 50 lb bags of ice, soda, beer, and wine to get the booth ready to go when the festivities begin.  Since it was raining, the festival committee decided to close one of our booths for the night, which was good for us.  Setting up one booth was exhausting enough, I could not even imagine doing it again for the other booth.

Sunday, my father and I volunteered to work the afternoon.  We had both booths open, but we had 10 people working between the two.  The booth I worked at was right across one of the main stages, so we had a real good spot to see and hear various jazz performers.  Also, we had a representative from the Bold City Brewery, a local brewer, selling some of their beers in our booth as a way to get their name out as well.

All in all, working the booths was a success and I had a blast.  Next year, the Mayport Navy League is going to work all 7 available booths instead of 2, as a way to get even more involvement and money.  I am definitely looking forward to working the festival again in 2010.