Without volunteers from the Lansing and East Lansing community, the 2016 Common Ground Music Festival would not have been possible.
Hundreds of locals rushed to sign-up for the unpaid job.
They simply received purple shirts that said, “2016 Common Ground Volunteer” and a special wristband that gave them all-access to the festival grounds.
With that being said, there are also many non-profit organizations that gathered their very own volunteers to help raise money for their organizations.
Lansing Catholic High School volunteered to work two tents at Common Ground to help raise money for Lansing Catholic Church and Lansing Catholic High School athletics.
“Common Ground allows us to run two of their tents,” Jene St. Germain, coordinator of the Lansing Catholic High School vendors at Common Ground, said. “We have one next to the main stage and one in the center of the festival grounds.”
Volunteers for the high school came out from different athletic clubs to serve all of the Common Ground ticket goers.
“We are here all week, it’s a lot of fun,” St. Germain said. “We get to watch the concerts from our tents because we’re so close to the Main Stage.”
This was the fourth year St. Germain and her husband worked at Common Ground for Lansing Catholic Church.
“We have a bell at our tent,” St.Germain said. “So anytime someone gives us a tip, we ring the bell and sometimes even let the customer ring the bell.”
The Lansing Center runs the food and beverage and volunteers of Lansing Catholic run the vendors for their organizations.
“As far as total money raised, we’re not sure,” St. Germain said. “We don’t find out until the end of the Common Ground Music Festival.”
Officials did not respond to requests for comment on the amount of money raised.
Currently, Lansing Catholic High School currently has a Vision 20/20 plan that is funded through fundraising of volunteers in the Lansing Catholic Community to help raise money to help families with tuition, teachers salaries and help build an athletic stadium for sports.
The goal for the Vision 20/20 plan is raise $5 million and to help build the Lansing Catholic community, and the purpose of their appearance at Common Ground was to get a step closer to that goal.
