Neighborhood dads Bill Wine and Andy Meyercord are pretty busy guys. Both have successful careers – Wine is head of production at Tracy Locke and Meyercord is an attorney. But this time of year, they add another important duty to their list.
Nacho slinger.
“It’s a big social thing – slinging nachos,” Wine says. “A very community thing.”
He’s only half-kidding. For four to six years now (neither of them can remember exactly how long they’ve been at it), Meyercord and Wine have handled operations at Franklin Field’s concession stand.
That means, with the help of other volunteers, they work the stand during games, handle the money coming through it, set it up before games, clean it up afterward, and make sure it’s stocked.
The latter involves going to Sam’s Club three to four times a week, sometimes before work at 7 a.m., and dropping up to $500 on chips, sodas, hot dogs, chili and other things people love to eat at games.
The duties, both men say, amount to what is essentially another part-time job during the football season (they run the stand year-round, but it’s considerably less work in the spring, they say).
“Bill and I each spend about 25-30 hours a week,” Meyercord says, “It takes a lot of time to make sure the people are there and the product is there.”
The people are the volunteers – including their wives, Kathy Wine and Megan Meyercord – without whom the men say they could not get the job done.
“I can’t put it in words,” Meyercord says. “All of the people who are there enjoy the camaraderie of the activity. It’s fun to be there anyway, but it’s primarily fun because of the people that are there with you.”
“We could not do it without them,” Wine adds.
Often, the volunteer staff depends on the event. For instance, during Franklin games, the Franklin Dad’s Club runs the stand, and parents from elementary feeder schools also usually staff it one night during the season.
“It helps the parents from other schools get to know us,” says David Look, president of the Hillcrest Athletic Association.
Both Wine and Meyercord became involved because they had children attending Hillcrest. Wine’s daughter Haley just graduated, and his youngest, Annabelle, is a freshman. Meyercord has five children – his two youngest, K.C., 13, and 15-year-old Mackie, are at Franklin and Hillcrest.
Wine says his kids sometimes question why he does it. “They think it’s crazy because it does become like another job,” he says. “It’s a lot of work throughout the season. But, like any other job, there is reward in it.”
And a big part of that reward, he says, is the money the stand makes.
Last year, adds treasurer Dorothy Allyn, the stand netted about $20,000. A percentage of that money goes to DISD, but plenty is leftover – around $8,000 went to the Hillcrest Athletic Association, and several thousand more went toward other needs, such as uniforms for the marching band and expenses at Hillcrest’s feeder schools.
And, in the end, taking care of neighborhood schools and each other is, Wine says, “what Hillcrest is all about.”
“I think it’s one of Dallas’ best kept secrets. It’s really like a small school, in the middle of town, with great parental support.”
