MANCHESTER, N.H. – When it comes to the band Phish, many may think of its music or perhaps its fans. But for almost 30 years, there is one aspect of the Vermont-based quartet that people may not be aware of: its non-profit organization.
On Saturday morning, that non-profit organization – the Waterwheel Foundation, gathered over a dozen volunteers to help tend the New Hampshire Food Bank’s garden on River Road.
Founded in 1997 by members of the band, the Waterwheel Foundation has collected over $9 million for over 500 non-profit organizations in the U.S., while also providing fans with an opportunity to volunteer for local charities in cities where the band tours.
Matt Eaton was once one of those volunteers and now he is the volunteer coordinator for the Waterwheel Foundation. During Phish’s trip to Manchester this weekend, they also helped the Conservation Law Foundation and the Connecticut River Keepers in addition to this volunteer effort in the garden.
Eaton says that approximately 30 people signed up online, with many of the volunteers having come to Manchester to see the show. One part of the culture that has arisen around its band is a sense of community and compassion, which has made it easy to find help.
“Whenever we start planning for an event like this, we ask ‘so how are we going to get people to sign up, what’s the incentive, right?’ But you know what? We learned that we don’t have to give anything in exchange, we just put the sign up out and everything started filling up,” said Eaton. “We realized that the experience and the community building and giving back is incentive enough for people. None of these people are getting tickets to the show for being here or anything like that, they’re just here to give back.”
While volunteers at the garden had the common thread of Phish and the desire to do a good deed binding them together, there were also plenty of differences as well.
Jim Merullo of Natick, Mass., had attended 59 Phish shows as of Saturday morning, but this was his first time volunteering with Waterwheel, something he plans to do again in Philadelphia when the band travels there on tour later this summer.
Merullo saw the chance to volunteer in his social media feed and felt like it just made sense given that he’d be in town for the entire weekend.
“I didn’t want to drive home every night, so I needed something to do. I thought I would meet people, and I love meeting people from the community. Plus it gives me something to get up for in the morning and gives me a chance to get up and enjoy the outdoors,” he said. “Gardening here is very different from a Phish show, a little more low-key, a little relaxing, but it was the same community vibe when I walked up. People were just so friendly and I felt like I could turn to anybody and talk to them as if I knew them. That’s kind of how it is at a Phish show: you sit down and you can just talk to people as though they were your neighbors.”
Meanwhile, Scott Light is no stranger to Waterwheel charity stops. Saturday marked his 20th volunteer gig, and as of Saturday he has been to 145 Phish shows. Light echoed Merullo’s sentiments in saying that there are many people at each show whose attendance tally would far dwarf theirs.
Light first volunteered for Waterwheel in Las Vegas but hails from Roanoke, Virginia.
“It gives you something to do in the morning as you wait for the show rather than just sitting in a poster line or an entry line. It gives me something to do and helps give back to the community,” he said. “I’ve volunteered with food banks and other places where I’ve lived in the past, but I’m definitely more into it with Waterwheel. It’s just different from a normal experience because its Phish space.”
Waterwheel’s next volunteering stop is with the Austin Humane Society in Austin, TX, on June 26. More information on that or other volunteering opportunities with the band can be found here. More information on the organization itself can be found at www.waterwheelfoundation.org.