BOWLING GREEN — A ticket promotion intertwined with an effort to provide meals for hospital workers, first responders, and grocery store employees yielded heartening results for Bowling Green State University's department of athletics.
BGSU partnered with three eateries — Campus Pollyeyes, SamB's Restaurant, and Jimmy John's — over the course of three weeks to bring food to its community workers for whom working from home is not an option.
Fans who participated in donating meals at $6 each received one free ticket per ticket account to Bowling Green's first home football game, which is scheduled for Sept. 12 against Robert Morris.
"People are looking for ways they can help, what they can do, and so often you feel paralyzed because it's like, 'What can do? I can't send masks to the hospital,'" said Paul Bezdicek, BGSU's director of ticket operations.
"We felt it was a really great opportunity to support our local businesses, support our partners, and provide some meals to these frontline workers who don't have the ability to work from home day-in, day-out."
The school provided Pollyeyes to Wood County Hospital and BG nursing home staff during the first week, SamB's to the BG Fire and Police Departments during the second, and Jimmy John's to employees at the local Meijer, Kroger, and Wal-Mart locations during the third.
The school finished the promotion at the close of business on Saturday with a total of 1,169 meals donated during the three weeks.
Bezdicek said BGSU was taken aback by the scope of the community response. In his periodic updates with David Anderson, the general manager of Falcon Sports Properties, Bezdicek said they couldn't believe how many people jumped at the chance to offer support to frontline personnel.
"I would send him updated numbers all of the time, and both of us were like, 'Holy cow, this is blowing us away,'" Bezdicek said.
While BGSU tied tickets to the effort as a small incentive, Bezdicek said he believed most people donated simply because they wanted to help.
The campaign started with modest goals, but Bezdicek said the outpouring of donations quickly surpassed them.
"I honestly was going to be happy with 500 to 600, and we did around 600 in the first week alone," Bezdicek said. "So we were extremely surprised, but at the same time, I guess I shouldn't be because I know our community and I know our fans, and they're always willing to go above and beyond to donate when we provide opportunities."
First Published May 18, 2020, 6:23 p.m.
