A volunteer and staffer Ellen Atkins listen to Wendy Wigger of Gilda's Club before a show at the Fountain Street Church. /Kristina Jeluso
To get learn more about the mission or get involved as a volunteer for Gilda's Club visit : http://www.gildasclubgr.org/volunteer.html
Volunteer Ann Videtich from Kalamazooon shows off one of the LaughFest bags for purchase. /Kristina Jeluso
Patricia Walsh, Anne Videtich, and Sharon Aalderin prepare items that raise additional funds for Gilda's Club. /Kristina Jeluso
Bill Cosby landed in private jet at the Grand Rapids airport. A LaughFest host and a driver greeted him, then tried to respect his privacy in case he was not interested in chatting. However, he seemed open to conversation. So his volunteer chauffeur asked, "Mr. Cosby, where are you coming from?"
He replied, "I'm coming from southern Utah. I've been there the last three days for a corporate event."
"Oh. Ok," replied his driver, Doug Wustman, co-chair of the transportation for the festival.
He responded, "What did you mean by that?"
"Nothing."
"No really," Cosby pressed. "You sounded like you knew something."
"No, no. Just acknowledging what you'd said."
"No really, do you think your pretty smart or something?"
This is when Doug started to sweat. He shared, "I'm thinking, Holy Mackerel! I've had Mr. Cosby in the car for thirty seconds, and I've got him mad at me."
Cosby let him squirm, then let him off the hook. "I realized he was just giving me a hard time," Doug said. For the rest of the ride, Cosby was pleasant and jovial.
Doug is one of more than 1,300 volunteers necessary to bring 10 days of comedy to over 30 venues. 50 acts and headliners at over 110 free shows played for the Grand Rapids area. 100 percent of the profits from the event stay within this community. Gilda's Club describes it as the gift of a smile given back to the area for its support over the past ten years that they've had a chapter in west Michigan.
LaughFest volunteer coordination meetings started at Gilda's Club weekly in February. Staff members told those who wanted to help with the festival about Gilda's Club's mission, which is to provide free social and emotional support to anyone on any kind of cancer journey—children, adults, families and friends.
Volunteers were instructed to be the smiling, warm welcome that people would receive at Gilda's Club extended throughout the festival. Logistics were discussed, and the staff navigated the course of putting an event of this scale together for the first time.
The final gathering of volunteers before the start of LaughFest took place at Celebration Cinema. Volunteers paid for their t-shirts. Clips of Gilda Radner's Saturday Night Live sketches played on the big screen. The group was given final general instructions and addressed by Gilda's Club president and CEO Leann Arkema. Volunteer comics, the LaughFest "Nannies" David Dyer and Tim Cusack, entertained.
Each venue had a Glida's club staff member or two in charge of the front of the house. Volunteers took lead roles in being venue captains (second in charge after staff), ushering, taking tickets, selling merchandise, doing concessions or set-up. The back of the house consisted of a staff member in charge with set-up, technical and stage support.
While showing a smile to the crowd, volunteers and staff worked hard to make things run smoothly. Once the public started arriving, volunteers were mobilized to balance the needs of the attendees with the logistics of the venues, needs of the artists, and policies Gilda's Club had established.
Susan VanSlooten, a venue captain said, "I think initially, the project [LaughFest] was kind of pie in the sky, and let's just open it up to anyone who is interested. They kind of just contacted anyone they could think of who was a comedian, and it just grew. All of a sudden there were little blossoms here and there. The same thing happened with volunteers. Once they heard a little bit about what was going on, they wanted to get involved. It just sounds like such a novel idea. [People were excited about] being able to make a positive impact in Grand Rapids. From a few articles in the paper, there were people coming from all areas to be involved. Gilda's personnel worked to break it down to manageable parts."
At the Last Laugh, despite freezing rain, volunteers and community members created the signature smile holding yellow and black cards underneath the red Calder sculpture.
John VanSlooten, Susan's husband and co-venue captain, compared the outcome of the festival with an outlook on a cancer journey saying, "Success is called survival. For LaughFest, they not only survived, they thrived. That's what Gilda's Club tries to emphasize."
Disclosure: The author was also a volunteer at the Best of the Midwest, Michael Jr., Chondra Pierce and Last Laugh LaughFest events.
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