BCM students join in Super Bowl seat cushion project

JACKSONVILLE (FBW)–Baptist Collegiate Ministries students from all over Florida and Baptist church members stuffed and placed more than 80,000 seat cushions at Jacksonville’s Alltel Stadium before the Super Bowl.

Click image for related coverage

The National Football League’s Host Committee enlisted them to place cushions in every stadium seat Jan. 29-30 and Feb. 1, 3 and 4. Volunteers packed pouches affixed to the cushions with miniature flashlights, FM radio receivers, laminated halftime show cards, and letters from Jacksonville elementary students.

Greg Sego of Murray Hill Baptist Church, a Florida Community of College at Jacksonville student, volunteered so he could be a witness for Christ. He said he knew “the people inviting churches and the BCM to come are not of the church,” but they “invite the kids because they believe that they can trust them.”

Greg Rosen, owner of Meeting Street Promotions, has directed seat cushion stuffing for 11 Super Bowls - and has used Baptist groups for three years. He contacted Ben Smith, a Baptist Student Ministries Director for the Florida Baptist Convention, for assistance in Jacksonville’s Super Bowl cushion stuffing effort.

“Ben Smith has been a tremendous coordinator,” Rosen said.

Smith, director for the Jacksonville area BCM, said the volunteers’ work started Jan. 29 with BCM students from University of South Florida, University of Florida, Florida State University, University of West Florida, University of North Florida, Jacksonville University, and some community colleges. Smith said there is “a lot of integrity involved in following through.

“I think that one thing we wanted to do as far as making an impression was to really do the job, have people show up when they were supposed to, get a lot done, and not stress out the people that we’re doing this for,” Smith said.

Students, like Robby Angell, a University of North Florida sophomore, enlisted in the assembly-line atmosphere on several days. Because students had a wide area to cover they hung as many cushions off their arms as possible, and friendly competition ensued.

“I was privileged to be able to drive around the car to transport the cushions and radios to different parts of the stadium,” Angell said.

Even Baptists from out of state got involved in the cushion stuffing action.

For one campus minister from Allison Park, Pa., coming to Jacksonville for Super Bowl week represented more than just another ministry opportunity — it was a homecoming.

Carla Lahey, who is involved with collegiate ministry at the University of Pittsburgh as a US2 worker with the North American Mission Board, is a Jacksonville native. A member of Hogan Baptist Church, she plans to move back when her stint with NAMB ends in July.

“It’s been incredible,” said Lahey. “It’s really neat to get come back to your hometown and see it really as a mission field.”

Frances Bouterbaugh, a bivocational campus minister at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa., traveled to Jacksonville with Lahey.

“How in the world can I encourage [students] to do it if I’m not doing it?” said Bouterbaugh.

In addition to cushion stuffing, Lahey, Bouterbaugh and friends volunteered in a Feed the Children event through the National Football League’s Host Committee. Although they were told not to overtly witness, Bouterbaugh said they prayed that, despite the lack of witnessing opportunities, the people who received food would have later encounters with members from the church where the food drop was held.

“They may see you at the grocery store, and then you can build a relationship with them and begin to talk,” said Bouterbaugh, who works at a rescue mission.