Lakenheath Exchange Scores a Collaborative Goal with Big-Screen Rob Gronkowski NFL ProCamp Event
As any “Ted Lasso” fan knows, “football” has a different meaning in the United Kingdom than it does in the United States. But when the Royal Air Force Lakenheath Exchange, about 80 miles northeast of London, hosted a virtual NFL ProCamp for military kids this summer, it went for the touchdown to do something special for Americans stationed at Lakenheath.
Lakenheath was one of eight Exchanges—and the only one outside of CONUS—to win a ProCamp, in which grand-prize winners between the ages of 6 and 14 get to meet and interact with an NFL star.
“ProCamps normally takes place with the pro coming to the bases,” said Hannah Perez, Lakenheath sales and merchandise manager. “With COVID, that was definitely not going to happen. So our GM, Mary Omler, said ‘How cool would it be for us to make it more of an event for the children?’”
The Lakenheath Exchange, in collaboration with the Defense Commissary Agency and ProCamp’s sponsor Procter & Gamble decided to show its ProCamp, which featured tight end Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski of the Super Bowl-winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers, on the big screen at the Exchange movie theater. The next step was getting the word out.
“Everything was done in absolute collaboration with the commissary to make sure we could reach as many people as possible,” Perez said. “The actual participation, that’s where it got tricky.”
When the ProCamps took place in July, COVID restrictions were being loosened, and U.S. citizens were able to travel back to the States. Many people on base took advantage of the opportunity.
“There weren’t that many people here during the summer holidays,” Perez said. “So we looked at different ways of marketing the event and reaching as many people as possible. We went to the Youth Center, we spoke to people at mall at Lakenheath and at the commissary.”
Chief Master Sgt. Scott R. Piper, the superintendent in charge of youth sports programs at Lakenheath, helped out by using his contacts to send mass text messages to parents on base. “It was definitely a joint effort to get people involved,” Perez said.
Then came the really tricky part: The ProCamp event would be live-streamed—but the theater didn’t have Wi-Fi. At first, the Exchange worked through its U.K. services team, which considered creating a hot spot that would make the screening possible. But then the team sought help from the Air Force’s 48th Communications Squadron.
“We went to them and said, ‘We want to have this event, but it’s dependent on having Wi-Fi there’,” Perez said. “They got that done within two weeks with the contractors and we were able to go there and test it. They were absolutely brilliant.”
Each installation that won a ProCamp chose four grand-prize winners between the ages of 6 and 14—two from the Exchange and two from the commissary—to participate.
Only one of the Lakenheath winners was able to attend. The rest were out of town but logged in and watched the event. Shoppers also got to see Gronk, who was shown on big-screen TVs throughout the store.
The winners got to ask Gronk how old he was when he began playing football, what his workouts consist of, what the first thing he did was after the Bucs won the Super Bowl and other questions. They also each received signed Gronkowski jerseys, as well as a $1,000 Exchange gift card, a $200 NFL ProShop gift card and Procter & Gamble products.
“But it’s been a really difficult year and a half,” Perez said. “It was nice to do an event that made it a little more fun.”
Virtual camps were also awarded to Fort Drum, the Air Force Academy, Hill Air Force Base, Robins Air Force Base, Nellis Air Force Base, Fort Leonard Wood and Fort Lewis.
