Volunteers Help Put Glitz in the Game

One sure-fire way to make NFL officials go Mike Ditka-bonkers on Super Bowl Sunday would be to ruin the playing surface when singer Michael Jackson and a few thousand youngsters take to the field at halftime.

But not to worry.

Producers of the glitzy intermission program are relying on unpaid workers--among the 5,000-plus volunteers who are helping to put on Super Bowl events--to make sure that the larger-than-life production set on which the participants will perform does not muss up the gridiron.

Some 200 volunteer police officers and firefighters are ready to spring into action at the halftime gun, gently wheeling a 22-piece, 12-ton production set from stadium tunnels to the Rose Bowl’s center field--in five minutes flat. It is a feat that the volunteers have spent weeks practicing, even in pouring rain, hoping that the set’s pneumatic tires--the same type used on aircraft--won’t turn askew in front of the 103,000 fans in the stadium and an estimated 1.3 billion TV viewers.

“We cannot dent a single blade of grass,” co-producer Michael Fiur of Radio City Music Hall Productions said solemnly.

Volunteers for other Super Bowl events are charged with duties that include welcoming the combatants, the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills, at Los Angeles International Airport, singing “Heal the World” in Jackson’s halftime number and showing up at area hotels in pressed white sweaters to field fans’ questions.

Very few volunteers actually make it to the game, and when they do, organizers downplay their chances of seeing much.

Nevertheless, volunteers from as far away as Lompoc and San Diego are converging on Pasadena to get in on the action for Super Bowl XXVII. Some hope they will get to see the game, some women want to meet available men, and some people just love the spectacle, organizers said.

“They want to be close to the biggies,” said Sonya Amos, coordinator of Super Bowl volunteers for the city of Pasadena. “Everybody wants to be close to the players. They want to be closest to wherever the most is happening.”

It is a chance for the football faithful and others to get behind the scenes at a world-famous event--a chance that most people don’t get for that other big Pasadena event, the Tournament of Roses Assn. Thousands of volunteers paste petals and affix seeds on the New Year’s Day floats, but the football game and parade are put on by the membership-only association, spokeswoman Caryn Eaves said.

Former float volunteer Debbie Covell, 34, said the staid Tournament of Roses does not come close to matching the Super Bowl hoopla. “I’ve never seen anything like this, “ said the Pasadena native, who is a volunteer for the Super Bowl Transportation Committee.

“If I had a dollar for the times everyone asks me if they get tickets to this . . . “ grumbled Stefani Wanickur, projects coordinator for the Super Bowl XXVII Host Committee.

Wanickur tells them that she would like to get in to see the big game, too, but not at the $600 minimum price quoted by scalpers for tickets with a face value of $175. There is no public sale of tickets.

Close-but-no-cigar is enough for some.

Football fan Peter Fogg will work dawn-to-midnight on Super Bowl Sunday, helping to coordinate traffic by radio from his command post in a trailer outside Gate C at the Rose Bowl parking lot. That is close enough to hear the roar of the crowd and sneak a peek at the football field through a chain-link fence. But the 57-year-old Pasadena resident said he won’t be tempted.

“Our particular function is getting a zillion vehicles on the premises and off the premises,” he insisted. “We’re trying to be good hosts for the game.”

Fogg, a radio network buff, requested his assignment. Volunteers sometimes get a choice of jobs but usually are told what to do.

Volunteer recruitment, which began in August, 1991, is so easy that the host committee never put out a public call for free help.

“We thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, we could be inundated with thousands of resumes,’ ” explained Mary Weir, managing director of the host committee. “People have been calling in for a year, saying, ‘I want to help! I want to help!’ ”

There is no volunteer central. At least six different entities signed up volunteers, including Party Planners West for the weekend’s “NFL Experience” theme park at the Rose Bowl and the city of Pasadena for the Super Bowl hot line and the weekend’s “Pasadena Celebrates” arts and entertainment festival in front of City Hall.

The NFL recruits no volunteers for game duties, relying only on its staff and other professionals, spokesman Pete Abitante said.

On a recent evening, the 500 on-stage youngsters rehearsed in a Rose Bowl parking lot, singing along to a tape of Jackson’s song, “Heal the World,” and swaying their arms overhead whenever director Don Mischer did.

There is no question why 11-year-old Rosemary Silva and her classmates from Hawaiian Avenue Elementary School in Wilmington readily gave up five nights for the 2 1/2-hour rehearsals.

“To see Michael Jackson,” Rosemary said.

“Famous star,” chimed in 11-year-old Veronica Velazquez.

“It’s good to know almost everyone in the world will be seeing you,” added 12-year-old Daysha Thomas.

Other volunteers behind the scenes say they just want to feel that they are part of sports history. Cyndee Freedland, 13, of Los Feliz, and her family--father, mother and 16-year-old brother--signed up to help with the halftime show, making cards for a planned stadium crowd card stunt.

“It sounded like an experience you can only get once in a lifetime before you get too old and can’t do as much,” said Cyndee.