Behind the scenes of a ND football weekend: Taking out the tailgaters' trash
By TAI ROMERO
Scene Writer
From the bowels of Notre Dame's stadium lurks a power stronger than a stadium crowd of 80,000 fans. With 80 arms and strength enough to clear 17 tons of trash off the street, this super human force has but one task— to beautify our campus.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It's the crew of Great Lakes Property Maintenance, protecting the Notre Dame parking lots and stadium from the constant threat of Trash Man, an intimidating pile of a villain. Combating this awesome beast is a seasonal job. In fact, the beast only rears its gruesome head on home football game days.
Have no fear students; Great Lakes Property Maintenance has the ultimate plan to prevent Trash Man from overtaking the campus and using his garbage super powers to turn students into mulch for a compost heap. The mastermind behind the Great Lakes Property Maintenance is Richard Stein, who explains the steps with which he and his crew tackle Trash Man and his evil ways.
First, the crew fights the big pieces of litter in the parking lots while emptying the trash barrels filled by Trash Man's greatest ally … tailgaters. Next 15 crew members, affectionately termed pickers, do their part in battle by sweeping the parking lots after the partying tailgaters' retreat. The pickers have to brave such feats as clearing the lots of five to 10 BBQ grills, a combined 15 tons of debris and occasionally a charbroiled lamb's carcass.
Lastly the Great Lakes Property Maintenance fights battle on the final frontier, the Notre Dame Stadium. Here, the crew must deal with the annoyance of plastic cups, leftover food, food wrappers and those ever-popular marshmallow remains in the student section. Using backpack blowers, the crew suppresses Trash Man into 700 garbage bags, weighing 10 pounds each.
Great Lakes Property Maintenance has been whooping Trash Man's booty in the parking lots for six years and in the Stadium for three. Being the victor against Trash Man is not all fun and games, though. Being on the prowl for an evil villain can occupy six to eight hours on Saturdays and Sundays. In addition, the good guy misses the action of the football game.
Students should appreciate the efforts of Great Lakes Property Maintenance and their trash fighting crew. After all, without their hard work, the students would be forced daily to brave a wasteland of trash and lamb carcasses — not the pristine grounds they've become accustomed to traversing.
All Scene Stories for Friday, October 27, 2000
