With Boston Blades home games coming to an end for this season, we take a look at a huge portion of game day operations that allow Blades games to function: the volunteers.

Anyone who has worked in sports can attest to this, game day is crazy. For the Blades specifically, there are a million tasks to accomplish in short amounts of time. Every volunteer has a set task to perform each game but also assist with whatever else is necessary. These tasks include PA announcements, operating the scoreboard, tracking statistics, merchandising, live-tweeting, running the music, and ticket sales. There is a lot of running around and hard work done to ensure everything is accomplished to make the game run as smoothly as possible.

Being a part of the Blades volunteer staff is a unique and rewarding experience. The volunteer staff became a family. Everyone has a different story, a different reason why they decided to volunteer. But these differences led us to all to the same place, volunteering for the Blades. A few of the volunteers wrote on their experiences with volunteering.

Derek Reiss is new to the Blades this year and spent the season assisting in PA announcements, stats, and operating the scoreboard. “Volunteering for the Blades has been a great experience. The Blades organization really is made up of a great group of people. It did not take long at all for me to feel at home. Now, I think I did a pretty good job of hiding it, but how do you not get star struck when you show up the arena? Whether it’s a practice or a game, we have professional hockey players, several of which are Olympians showing up. The first practice that I was able to attend was 48 hours after the Four Nations tournament. Less than two days after the United States and Canada faced each other in the finale and it came down to the two, Genevieve Lacasse and Hilary Knight showed up at the arena together. I thought that was one of the coolest things and I also thought it said a lot about their character and you can see that the same mentality trickles down to the rest of the team. I also feel that, as a staff, we gelled really well. It was a great pleasure getting to know everyone that works behind the scenes and do our part in trying to help make this thing happen. As the season went on, I feel like we got better and better. I hope to see a lot of the same faces next season as well. We are our own team within the team.”

Mike Palmer is in his second season with the Blades and will be making the trip to the Clarkson cup. He runs the merchandise table during games.

“This year volunteering with the Blades was a life changing experience. After being asked to come back last after interning with the team, I had a better understanding what my responsibilities were. I was able to continue where I left off with merchandise the year before. With a new season and new goals I set for myself, I was ready to roll. I set high expectations for myself to help the team anyway I could from marketing to selling merchandise or doing whatever was asked for me. After a great season, I learned more about what happens off the ice with marketing and merchandise. Even though I was not a player, I felt like I contributed to the team by selling merchandise and helping market the team.”

Stephen Despres, new to the Blades this season, helped with a variety of tasks. He helped with the merchandise table and took stats for the majority of games this season.

“I really enjoyed volunteering for the Blades, it felt like a close knit family, and I truly enjoyed each game. I also wanted to say that I am thankful to work with everyone, as you all are wonderful. I volunteered because it seemed like a cool opportunity to work for a local team and I also love the game of hockey. I would like to help out next year. I hope that we win the Clarkson Cup because I am looking forward to a party, Go Blades!”

These volunteers, and many more, have been essential to the Blades this season and their hard work and dedication is appreciated by all.

Special thanks to this years volunteers:

Bob Varney, Christina Lynch-Bigornia, Courtney Duggan, Derek Reiss, Elizaveta “Russia” Monakhova, Jenny Landini, Karla MacDonald, Krista Patronick, Mike Palmer, Mike Burse, Molly Sullivan, Nathan Vaughan, Sara Plunkett, Sarah Connors, Stephen Despres, and Zoe Zisis