AC casino workers compete in ‘olympics’

John Curran

Friday, Aug. 31, 2001 | 11:07 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- In this olympics, there were no time trials, no TV cameras, no color commentators whispering into their microphones.

The playing field was a parking lot next to a union hall. The only people in uniform were the chambermaids.

At Local 54's Casino Olympics, the winners didn't get gold medals. Just cash. Which was only fitting. It's a cash business, after all.

The fifth annual event, held has part of the casino workers' union's Labor Day Festival, included a bed-making contest, a drink-mixing competition, a bake-off and a timed race through an obstacle course for cocktail servers.

More than 25 union members, most of them casino workers, raced the clock while a panel of local politicos judged them.

"We're professionals, and we get to show off our skills here," said Terry McCabe, director of negotiations, who ran the contests. "It isn't easy to do these jobs. People don't understand how tough it is to be a cocktail server on a casino floor, with people bumping you, people pushing you, people shoving you."

In the bed-making contest, six guest room attendants took turns making up a bed. They didn't have to practice. They get enough of that on the job, making 26 to 30 beds per day.

Each started with a stripped bed and a folding chair containing two pillows, two pillowcases, two sheets, a mattress pad, a blanket and a bedspread.

First up was last year's champion, Rosa Bubinas, 56, of Tropicana Casino and Resort. "Go!" said McCabe, clicking the start button on a stopwatch.

Hunched over the bed, Bubinas threw the mattress pad on first, then the sheets and blanket, before walking around to the other side and tucking them in. Then she covered the pillows and wrapped them in the top of the bedspread. Elapsed time: Two minutes, 38 seconds.

Speed wasn't the only thing that counted. Neatness did, too. Twice judges got up from their table to walk around the bed, checking all sides.

Fabiola Bermudez, 40, from Trump Marina, finished in 1:56, but apparently she wasn't neat enough. The winner was Sheila Biddle, 51, who works at Bally's Park Place. She finished in 2:15.

She won $250 cash, but didn't have time for the post-game interview. "I gotta get back to work," she said.

In the bartender competition, mixologists had as much time as they needed to whip up original concoctions -- one with booze, one without.

The winner was Donald Dunleavy, 65, who works at the Atlantic City Convention Center. He made a "Peppermint Patty" using peppermint schnapps, chocolate and cream.

That contest may have been the judges' favorite. They had to taste all the drinks. "I'm getting bombed," said Atlantic County Clerk Michael Garvin.

In the food and cocktail servers contest, participants had to negotiate nine orange traffic cones set up in the shape of a rectangle while carrying a tray loaded with five filled champagne glasses. Jeff Reich, 32, of Resorts Atlantic City, won with a time of 19 seconds.

The contest for bellpersons, which was to be run over the same course using luggage carts, was canceled for lack of entries.

April Pinkett, 25, of the Claridge Casino Hotel won the cook's competition, beating out three others with "Ostrich on the Tropics" -- ostrich meat and tropical fruit.

"Customers in these casino hotels take superior service for granted, because it's an everyday occurrence," said Local 54 president Bob McDevitt. "This is a way to celebrate our members' skills."