When you visit Beaver Stadium this weekend, you’ll notice thousands of cars, people by the tens of thousands and tailgate parties galore.
What you might overlook is something that, sooner or later, you’ll be “relieved” to see.
Porta-Potties. Rows and rows of them. You can thank Robinson Portable Toilets and Septic Service, the company that’s maintained all of those comfort stations for more than a decade.
The company is owned by Sherry and Wade Robbins and they’ve put their whole family into the sanitation business. Daughter, Mandy, is a Penn State senior. Sons Zach, 26 and Cody, 24, also pitch in to help along with several other employees.
“We have six guys set up and our daughter helps. She does paper,” says Sherry Robbins.
How many Porta-Potties are scattered across the fields? According to Sherry Robbins, there are, “Approximately 400 and sometimes it can go up to 500. The bigger the game the more toilets there are.”
Getting everything set up is a time consuming operation and it starts long before the season begins. Sherry’s husband Wade estimates it takes about three weeks to get all the equipment moved in and ready to go.
But that’s the easy part. With so many people using the john it can get a bit… let’s say messy.
Sherry says there’s lots of graffiti left behind along with garbage, including beer bottles and underwear. “The bigger the game the worse it is. Night games are the worst,” she says, because people are out there all day long.
Of course, there’s a lot of sewage to handle. Wade Robbins says, “It’s anywhere from 12,000 to 25,000 gallons. We usually start five to six hours after the game… We use eight trucks and it takes about six hours to clean ’em all out and set ’em up.”
It’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it. They won’t say they’re “cleaning up” but the Sherry and Wade Robbins both say the business has done well over the years.
And of course, there are some odd memories that stand out. Sherry Robbins still chuckles about the clean up crew that found a man sleeping on the floor of one of their portable toilets. What did the driver do with the passed out customer? “He woke him up and he staggered home… we hope.”
