chevron and new orleans score big at the big game

3 min read | march 24, 2025

Kathy Sharp (right) and her daughter tossed beads from a parade float honoring the Philadelphia Eagles™ before the 2025 Super Bowl™ in New Orleans. Photo courtesy of Kathy Sharp.

Kathy Sharp, a senior HSE specialist at Chevron in Louisiana, and her daughter Marina Wilson spent the Saturday before the 2025 Super Bowl™ in unique fashion. The two were part of this year’s Host Ambassador Committee Program, so they spent the day welcoming football fans to the city of New Orleans from the deck of a parade float on Poydras Street.

As a founding partner of the New Orleans Super Bowl LIX Host Committee, Chevron sponsored this year’s Host Ambassador Committee Program. The program played an important role in creating a welcoming experience by recruiting, training and organizing volunteers—called ambassadors—to greet fans as they arrived in The Big Easy.

And as an avid football fan, Sharp jumped at the chance to volunteer when the pinnacle event of the National Football League™ (NFL) came to town. She was excited to share the volunteer application with her family and ended up sharing ambassador duties with her eldest daughter. The two were tasked with handing out beaded necklaces to everyone they saw.

Well, almost everyone.

While neither Sharp nor her daughter wore either team’s colors, they were stationed on the float dedicated to the Philadelphia Eagles™. And some fans wouldn’t risk associating with the rival team’s float.

“It was funny. A lot of Kansas City fans would not take beads from us,” Sharp said. “We tried. We said, ‘We have gold ones for you,’ and they were like, ‘No, no.’ Like they might be poisoned or something. But it was a lot of fun.”

bringing the energy

For the second time, the program put 3,000 volunteers to work greeting fans and visitors at the airport, in downtown New Orleans and in the French Quarter. Chevron first collaborated with New Orleans with volunteer help in 2013.

“Whenever a game like this comes to town, Chevron wants to be part of that host committee in whichever capacity may fit that year,” said Lira Casborné, a Chevron community engagement specialist based in Louisiana. “The biggest role we played this year was being the presenting sponsor of the ambassador program.”

The Chevron float was a part of the first New Orleans Super Bowl Host Committee parade.

Left: Chevron employee volunteers greet crowds from the parade float. Photo courtesy of Luke Allen. Right: Kathy Sharp (left) and her daughter joined Chevron employees on the float during the Host Committee’s parade. Photo courtesy of Kathy Sharp.

And the ambassadors’ job was to “emphasize the energy that was already buzzing in the city,” Casborné said. “They were there to pump people up. They would welcome visitors with beads—quintessential New Orleans, right?”

quintessential new orleans

In addition to welcoming revelers with beads, the program added a new attraction that captures the spirit of New Orleans—a parade. Floats wowed watchers as they made their way through the French Quarter and downtown New Orleans on February 8. Chevron participated with a three-section float that held 148 people.

“It was essentially like a Mardi Gras parade,” Casborné recalled. “For me, that was one of the highlights. Just really sharing this special moment in our city and welcoming all these visitors.”

The Chevron float was a part of the first New Orleans Super Bowl Host Committee parade. Photo courtesy of Luke Allen.

why it matters

Chevron’s commitment to making a difference in the communities where it operates means getting involved, whether that’s by helping out with big events or introducing local kids to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

For example, Sharp also volunteered at local, kid-focused Bridge 2 Innovation events before Super Bowl weekend. Sponsored by the 2025 Committee, these events treated New Orleans children, grades K-12, to an interactive experience showing how STEM plays a role in many industries.

Kathy Sharp explains how a science experiment works to a young visitor at the Bridge 2 Innovation event in New Orleans before this year’s Super Bowl. Photo courtesy of Kathy Sharp.

“It’s pretty exciting to see the light go off in someone’s mind and they think, ‘This might be something I could do,’” she said. “I think it’s incredibly important for our industry to build that excitement and passion.