Volunteers keep Water Follies safe behind the scenes

At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, Mike and Brenda Cullum of Kennewick made their way to Columbia Park.

“I’m just a fan of racing in general,” Mike Cullum said.

But the Cullums weren’t ordinary patrons. They were behind the pits sporting bright neon green shirts that read “security.”

This was the husband-wife duo’s first year volunteering.

“You get to be friends with some of the drivers and their crews,” Brenda Cullum said. “I think we’ll be doing it every year.”

Tri-Cities Water Follies relies on security volunteers to help crews, owners and operators stay safe, said Kathy Powell, event director. She likes to seek out about 70 each year.

“If I can get 60 to 70, I can make it through the weekend,” Powell said.

Each volunteer takes shifts from 7:30 a.m. to noon, or 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.

None are paid.

During the day, security volunteers can be seen making sure boaters and crews dress properly and have the credentials they need to be in the pit.

Near the end of the day Saturday, they could be seen making sure people leaving the area didn’t wander into a crew packing equipment into trailers.

Even worse, people could walk into tools and items being picked from the water and transported through the air by the crane.

“When they start picking stuff, we need to make sure crowds are out of the way,” said Frank Mora, a Water Follies security coordinator who has worked events for more than 22 years.

Many volunteers, like the Cullums, are family members or significant others, Mora said.

Mora helps security crews coordinate their runs and answer any additional questions that come up. His first priority is keeping crews and attendees safe.

Unfortunately, patrons don’t always listen. Mora has had people try to tell him or his volunteers that they’re part of a crew when they’re really not.

This serves as a safety precaution, since crews and drivers don’t always see people around or behind their boats.

“They’re not looking for the extra people,” Mora said. “(Attendees) could get a tool dropped on them, they could get fuel on them.”

Crews need as much space as they can to operate. The worst times, Mora said, have been during accidents or boat flips.

“The general public’s at the gate and they want to get in, too,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Cullums kept their cool throughout the day and picked up the routine in no time.

You kind of get used to who’s coming or going,” Brenda Cullum said. “You get used to the faces.”

This story was originally published July 30, 2016 at 8:15 PM with the headline "Volunteers keep Water Follies safe behind the scenes."