Tampa’s Super Bowl XLIII will draw a domestic television viewership of nearly 150 million. Worldwide, it’s about a billion.
All eyes, including those of 4,000 media, will focus on the glitz, the glamour and the gladiators of America’s secular holiday. And yet, so much of the success of any Super Bowl — and its orbit of chichi events — depends on the unsung labors of anonymous volunteers.
Tampa has 6,000 of them – officially garbed in red windbreakers, khaki pants and baseball caps – whose job is to aid the logistically challenged and alleviate visitor anxieties. They will be concentrated at Tampa International Airport, hotel lobbies and the Convention Center media hub. The largest contingent, nearly 1,000, will work the interactive NFL Experience outside Raymond James Stadium. (But, no, none will be INSIDE the stadium.)
And they’re all the responsibility of community-service avatar Dottie Berger MacKinnon, a former Hillsborough County commissioner, founder of Joshua House and chairwoman of Kids Charity of Tampa Bay. The tireless, 66-year-old cancer survivor chairs volunteer services for the 2009 Tampa Bay Super Bowl Host Committee. Her job ranges from recruiting and training to coordinating with Pinellas County and Orlando. She has two paid staffers.
“Anything goes wrong,” underscores Berger, “the buck stops here. If a reporter has a bad experience and writes about it, that’s on me. I take that personally.”
So does Jennifer St. John, 35, one of those staffers.
“Dottie is an inspiration,” she says. “She’s also the most efficient person I’ve ever worked with. And she’s incredibly well connected. She’s opened a lot of doors.”
It’s all for a cause Berger believes passionately in.
“This is a chance for Tampa to shine and the Tampa Bay region to be showcased,” she explains. “The economic impact is huge. Our visitors will be well educated about who and what we are. Our volunteers are the face of Tampa, and they will make a lasting impression.”