[9/18/03]Concession stands will be full and ready for operation for Friday night’s Vicksburg High home opener against South Pike, representatives of a football parents’ group said.

Vicksburg High band parents, who ran the concession stands at football games for the past several years, handed control of the stands two weeks ago to the football parents. Since then, an effort to lure volunteers to work Friday nights in the stands have been moving feverishly.

Twenty-six parents are scheduled to work the stadium’s three concession stands two on the home side and one on the visitors on Friday, and between 50 and 60 signed up for the season, club president Milton Heard said.

Heard said it wasn’t difficult to find people on short notice.

“It’s a matter of getting information out to people,” said Heard, who sent letters home with football players from the eighth-grade to varsity levels inviting parents, neighbors and relatives to give their time. “Information is one of the key things in any operation.”

This was not the Club’s original plan, though.

Heard said he asked for a share in the concessions and was shocked when the entire operation was handed over to him.

Club vice president Sammie Rainey said the Club suggested three solutions at a recent school board meeting: splitting a percentage of the profits with the band, taking over one concession stand, or building a new, portable concession stand.

Joanne Gibbs, who ran the concessions for the VHS Band Boosters Organization before the changeover, said the group gave up control for the best interests of the school and to not get into a power struggle.

Money also played a role in the decision.

The band received less than 1/3 of its annual revenue from the concession sales, and splitting the revenue with the football team would prove to be more trouble than it was worth, Gibbs said.

“We’ve had it for a while,” she said. “We thought we’d let someone else do it. There’s a lot of work involved. You have to get there early, around 3 o’clock and start cleaning. You have to get supplies. It’s just a lot of work.”

Few football parents showed up for the first organizational meeting and a plan to pay people to work in the stands was discussed.

“That was a thought,” said Heard, adding that they have received enough support that it’s not necessary. “When you’re doing any kind of activity construction, cooking out for 20 people you have to have more than one plan.”

Rainey and Heard said there’s no animosity toward the band parents, and they hope to work with them in the future in a joint effort.

“It was wrong for the band parents to have it all,” Rainey said. “It’s wrong for us to have it all.”

Rainey, whosej son Michael plays football and daughter Michelle plays in the band, said he’s tired of the talk that the football parents stole the concessions from the band parents.

“Why would I favor one child over the other?” he said. “I have no reason to.”

Meanwhile, Gibbs will do something she hasn’t done in many years.

“I’m looking forward to being able to sit and watch a football game for once,” she said.