On Volunteering

This weekend, James and I had the privilege of volunteering for Reverb at the Dave Matthews’ Band shows in Alpine Valley. These were the 7th and 8th shows we’ve seen through Reverb since we began volunteering in 2012. James was absolutely over the moon about getting to work at these two shows, Alpine is one of his favorite venues, the charities are amazing, and the swag was cool too!

This time around, we were taking donations for the Farm to Family movement, with all money raised going to Turtle Creek Gardens, a farm in Wisconsin, to be used as literal seed money, then the produce grown would be given to a local food pantry so families in need would have access to fresh veggies!

In return for a $10 donation, we gave out water bottles that had been designed specially for the DMB/Reverb partnership this summer. Donors also got to enter to win a guitar signed by the entire band (raffled off at the end of the tour), and they had the chance to win a pair of pit tickets for that night’s show (a chance of about 1 in 40)!

Since we’ve worked with Reverb before, James & I took charge of the table, tracking the other volunteers bottles out/money in, setting up the displays, and scanning QR codes on the bottles to find out who would win the ticket upgrades. Aside from when we got married and had our babies, I don’t think I’ve ever seen James as excited as he was when he got to tell people, “You’re going to the pit!”

It was so rewarding to see the joy on these faces of those who got the upgrade, especially the second night when we had a repeat winner, who then gave her pit tickets to another donor.

We met some wonderful people (Farmer Steve was awesome), got to make the night that much more special for a bunch of people, and ultimately raised almost $9,000 to help families in need.

It was an amazing weekend!