uniformdistribution

Senior PGA Army Ready to Pick Up Uniforms & Schedules This Weekend

uniformdistribution

It takes a veritable army of volunteers to host the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, and that army needs uniforms. Beginning Friday, those uniforms will be distributed to nearly 2,000 eager volunteers ready to take on the myriad duties they have signed up for less than six weeks from now for the 79th Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores of Benton Harbor.

Danae Donatello is Volunteer Operations Manager for the Championship and she and a small group of staff members will be joined by the first flight of those volunteers this Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday to distribute those uniforms and credentials to the volunteers who have been signing up virtually since the 2016 event came to a conclusion. Some were actually signing up as soon as they showed up for duties at the Championship’s last visit here in 2016, and with a full contingent now on hand, any late stragglers are being put on a waiting list in case an opportunity opens up for their chance to work the Championship. The uniforms and credentials are packaged and will cover nearly the entire floor of the St. Joe High Gym soon, awaiting pick up.

Donatello and her team are eager to fire up the volunteers this weekend, and strongly encourage as many volunteers as possible to arrange for their pickup in a timely manner to minimize staff carryover and costly mailings to finish the task. The Championship returns  to the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course for fourth time over the Memorial Day Holiday weekend next month.

Danae and her boss, Championship Director Ryan Ogle say, “The logistics of distribution are pretty much down to a science, but each year we find ways to tweak the system to streamline the operation making it as smooth a process as possible for volunteers.” Inasmuch as peak times can be crunch times for those matching the prepackaged uniform and credential sets with volunteers arriving at the same time, the staff and committee work diligently to speed the process and get folks on their way, especially since many are headed into brief training sessions concurrent with the time of their uniform pick up.

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The UCD Days, as they call them (short for Uniform & Credential Distribution) are on tap this weekend with the following schedule:

  • Friday, April 20, 2018 — 4pm until 8pm
  • Saturday, April 21, 2018 — 8am until 4pm
  • Sunday, April 22, 2018 — 12 Noon until 4pm

All distribution will take place at the St. Joseph High School Gymnasium located at 2521 Stadium Drive in St. Joseph. Volunteers who have already signed up can pick up their gear at any time during those periods.

Concurrent with the uniform and credential distribution this weekend are multiple volunteer training sessions. Volunteers required at those sessions have been notified by the Championship office.

Volunteer work schedules are also being distributed with the credential packet, and each party should make sure that they have no conflicts with those schedules.

In addition, the top 13 contestants in the 2018 KitchenAid Volunteer Cooking Competition will compete for the chance to participate in a live cook-off at the 2018 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship Volunteer Appreciation Kickoff Party. The competition will take place this Friday, April 20, 2018 from 5 pm – 7pm at the High School as well.

For more information about the 79th KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, or to purchase tickets, visit SrPGA.com or call 1-800-PGA-GOLF (800-742-4653).

The photo accompanying this story on Moody on the Market.com is from the 2016 UCD Days and is intended to show the scope and scale of what’s involved in this massive undertaking with an army of volunteers.