Swamp Bats profiles: The Interns

Thursday is Fan Appreciation night. The Bats resume Monday’s suspended game with North Adams at 2pm and play a make-up game versus Ocean State at 6:30.  Fans will be admitted at no charge. There will be games and events and raffles and spinning contests and the Score’s toss and more.

Sarah Pelkey, Ellie Marshall, Erin MacLean, Greg Englehart and Harrison Durfee

And none of it could happen without the interns, those young people in the purple shirts who make a Swamp Bats game a community event.

“We could not do this without them. They are the glue that allows us to put on a great show every night,” says Swamp Bats president Kevin Watterson.  “They do the hard jobs, the dirty jobs that no one wants to do. They come in early. They set up. They stay late.”

Video scoreboards with fireworks and replays, out of town highlights and prompts to clap and cheer have been around forty years but, there is a human element to these games that’s missing on the MLB level. “We get kids active, get fans involved,” says Sarah Pelkey.  

Move It
photo by Doc Gordon

A big part of fan involvement is the Move It dance. It’s called Instant Recess”, explains operations management intern Ellie Marshall. “It’s based on Vision 20/20, a program to raise exercise awareness with Cheshire Medical to make the Monadnock region the healthiest in the country by the year 20/20.”

Sarah often leads the Instant Recess as fellow interns Ellie and Harrison Durfee join in. But every night, Sarah’s dance partner is the most famous of the Swamp Bats, Ribby. 

“Adults love Ribby, not just kids,” Sarah says. "Ribby’s known through the region, not just the ballpark.” With appearances at Pumpkinfest, senior centers, area events and, Reading with Ribby, Sarah has a good point. 

Ribby
photo by Doc Gordon

 Harrison Durfee supervises the Bat kids and Greg Englehart coordinates Swamp Bats baseball camps.

The interns also assist sponsors. “The sponsors come in and the interns set them up. Where should we put our table? Do they need a power source? Any time you are impressed with what’s going in, it’s because of our interns,”  Watterson says. Supervising the interns is Operations manager Erin MacLean. “She’s a great leader, great communicator and an ambassador for the organization,” says Watterson.

Even Ribby reports to Erin.