KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Brenda Garvin knows her story is ironic.
As a young couple, she didn’t want her husband to buy season tickets to the Kansas City Chiefs football team. He convinced her to go to one game and she was hooked.
“[The atmosphere at Arrowhead Stadium], it’s something and it took a hold on me,” Garvin admitted.
Now Garvin and her husband are Chiefs Red Coaters. The group represents the football franchise with community service programs.
Most notably, the Red Coaters founded Red Friday. In 1992, they sold newspapers on the Friday before the first Chiefs game of the season to raise money for charity.
Now, the group sells flags. Over the past six years, and again in 2019, money raised from those sales has gone to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City. They’ve raised more than $1.2 million the past five years alone. “We all do become one big family, I like that aspect of it,” Garvin said while preparing for the 2019 Red Friday at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Red Coaters also help to ensure fans have a good game-day experience. They are on the field for the opening ceremony. But they do not get in the game for free — Red Coaters buy their own tickets.
To become a Red Coater, candidates go through an interview process and then spend a year as an apprentice before earning their red coat. Throughout the year, Red Coaters have to reach a certain goal for volunteering to remain part of the group.
Garvin said she’s never looked back after that first game at Arrowhead.
