Dillingham’s four-month-old policy, which requires many student-athletes parents to volunteer two hours at major home tournaments, shows signs of early success.
The Dillingham City School District’s policy went into effect this fall. School officials say, so far, it is easing the burden on a handful of families who previously carried the majority of the work at school sports tournaments.
Evelyn Larson is a parent who serves as secretary of the parent advisory committee and chair of the Dillingham City School Districts Activities Committee. She says in past years, she spent up to 12 hours of a tournament weekend volunteering at the gate, which made it hard to watch her own children play.
She says after years of volunteer shortages, only a few families and school staff were managing concessions, meals, and other essential tasks. And they were struggling.
“We had only a few families and individuals volunteering. So with that comes concerns of if we don’t have the volunteers in the concessions then we have to close concessions. That’s money the teams cannot bring in as fundraising,” said Larson. “Another concern is if there are only a few individuals, how are we going to host teams and feed them?”
The school district reports a marked increase in volunteer hours since the policy went into effect this fall. According to the school district’s most recent data, at the SpikeFest volleyball tournament, 90% of required volunteer hours were covered this year, up from 71% last year.
Similarly, the Bunny Boot middle school tournament had 95% of hours covered, up from 69% last year.
“I have seen more parents being able to sit in the stands and catch a game at volleyball, or maybe not having to run and grab a parent in the home ec room or concessions if their kid is wrestling,” said Larson. “I’ve felt some relief as a parent and as a volunteer.”
Under the policy, parents or guardians are required to complete two volunteer hours per major tournament for each student-athlete participating. If they can’t, community members or extended family can step in. The policy says that student-athletes could lose their travel privileges if they fail to meet these hours, though exemptions exist for regional and state competitions.
Parents can volunteer in traditional roles like working concessions or gatekeeping, but they can also prepare meals. Volunteers can also “bank” extra hours for students who are short.
So far, no student has faced travel restrictions due to unmet hours. Larson says this is largely thanks to the volunteer bank. And, she says if a parent isn’t able to meet the hours, the district will work with them.
“We don’t want to negatively impact the kids. That’s not the goal of this policy. We just want to increase the volunteer hours being covered. Which, so far, everything is looking good,” said Larson.
Two tournaments remain for the policy, the Tip-Off Classic in Jan. 9-11, and the Supercub in Feb. 20-22.