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College Football Tailgate Outreach?
By John 'Bluto' Blutarsky

Dear Bluto,

I help with my church's college campus outreach. We have our work cut out for us this fall. The folks at Miami University are still reeling from the heart wrenching last second loss that cost them the the hockey national championship, but now football season has started and after three games, I don't think our offense has managed to score a TD yet. We had big plans to do a few fall football game outreaches, but now we are wondering what we should do since the team does not show signs of improving and we now have to play the UC Bearcats in early October and they have been beating opponents by more than fifty points per game? Any suggestions?

--Mike Messer,
Oxford, Ohio

Mike,

I feel your pain. The Faber Mongols weren't so good either. You might even say that our offensive line cracks under pressure like a puny little pencil. Maybe that is why me and my Delta boys soon learned to skip the games all together and throw parties. Maybe you should do the same thing. I have caught a few Bearcat games on television--what's the deal, I thought they were supposed to be known for excellence in prison basketball or something like that? They are kickin' butt and takin' names this year in football. Your Redhawks are not doing so well, eh? No worries. People will still go to the game if the weather is nice and if the game isn't fun to attend, the tailgate party should be. That is where you and your crew can pitch in and love the town of Oxford.

First, I want to make sure you have the right gear. . .

Feel free to drop me an email and I will get D-Day to schedule you a time to drop off your SUV to be retrofitted for the ultimate tailgating experience.

Just kidding. Sorta. Remember what happened when Flounder lent us his brother Fred's car? Just teasing you, Mike. Really you don't have to be overly fancy. The real key is looking for folks that have nothing. It is hard to impress people that already have a great tailgate party set up. Giving stuff away that is free, does not work well, if they already have better stuff than you are giving away. Don't focus on big and elaborate. Focus on supercharging the mundane. This really goes for all outreach.

For instance when I watched the Mongols get obliterated by State when I went to my homecoming recently with some of my old Delta buddies and we knew our team was doomed but did we let that stop us? NO WAY! We decided to throw a party—right in the middle of the huge quad where a bunch of folks were tailgating--they had returned to their cars even though it was only the second quarter. Talk about a group of people in need of kindness! It had been a while since I had taken in the whole tailgating experience. I was amazed at how sophisticated some people had gotten. I also noticed how envious some folks were. There was quite a gap between the have and the have nots in the parking area. God showed me many that may have been lucky enough just to scrape together the admission for the game and the parking pass. Then it occurred to me. If you look at some of the equipment Steve and the folks talk about in the Block Party PDF over at Kindness Resources, you could easily convert some of your supplies into a roaming tailgating upgrade service. Just imagine rolling through the parking lot of a college or pro game and looking for a family or group of people that did not quite have the resources for a proper tailgate party (I saw one group of young men that were eating burritos from Taco Bell and drinking Big K cola while leaning on their Ford Bronco) and surprising them with an instant upgrade. I mean fill in all the blanks. Put up a canopy, unfold comfortable sport chairs, coolers of great beverages, and maybe even a grill or a pot of hook-n-ladder chili and VIOLA an impromptu kindness bash!

John 'Bluto' Blutarsky

Campus Outreach Consultant, Serve! Magazine.

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