Heartland teacher Anne Regier heads up the concession stand and mans the grill no matter the weather!
Heartland Community Schools has an excellent reputation for offering high-quality concessions at all their Fall, Winter, and Spring sporting events. Gone are the days when you could only expect a hot dog and popcorn.
Today, folks attending sporting events can enjoy a pretty decent menu. Besides freshly grilled burgers, they offer a walking taco meal, super nachos, popcorn, hot dogs, and a variety of specials like a sloppy Joe meal.
A big reason for it is Heartland teacher Anne Regier, who is going on her 12th year heading up the concessions. It’s been her hard work and management skills that have made Heartland’s concessions top-notch!
The Heartland school cafeteria kitchen was bustling with Anne guiding a group of volunteers prepping for Friday night’s first home basketball game. “Even though I’ve been doing this a long time, I still get a little jittery before the first home basketball game because it always brings a big crowd,” said Anne.
She credits the staff and students who pitch in to help ensure their concessions are consistently good and ready to go on game day. “Typically, we need 7-10 helpers to run the concessions. For a fundraiser, different organizations within the school will take turns manning the concessions. Tonight, the golf team was helping, and they will get a portion of the proceeds towards their program,” said Regier
Grilling burgers on an outdoor grill is Anne’s claim to fame. “I started about ten years ago using a small grill from my Family & Consumer Science classrooms that held about a dozen burgers,” she said.
Since then, Anne has graduated to a Cadillac of a grill located outside the kitchen, where she grills hundreds of burgers no matter the weather. “I’ve never missed a concession in my 12 years, and you’ll find me grilling rain or shine whether it’s subzero out or not,” she said.
“What’s really helped our concessions is having one person in charge. We are just more efficient and streamlined because I can do all the ordering and managing,” she said. She is looking forward to the new concession stand that will be completed as part of the recently passed Heartland bond election.
“I told the kids that if the bond passed, I’d add soft pretzels to the menu, and they were pretty excited!” Anne looks forward to the new concession stand since it will be a designated area designed for serving concessions with room to store everything they need. Currently, when they use the cafeteria kitchen, many items have to be moved in and out, and the kitchen space is too large to function efficiently for serving concessions.
The concession stand is an excellent place for kids to learn the value of “good old-fashioned hard work,” according to Anne. “Even though they don’t get paid directly, they are involved in raising money for their particular organization, class, or sport. They are providing not only a service to their school and community but to our visitors.”
It’s easy to take something like concessions for granted, but much hard work behind the scenes makes Heartand’s concessions something to brag about! Remember to thank Anne the next time you see her and tell her what a great job she is doing!
