Economy Impacting Charity Firework Sales

SPOTSYLVANIA County, VA July 1, 2009-- The Knights of Columbus Battlefield Council 10246 donates100% of their profits from their annual firework sale to local charities but this year their optimism is tempered. Paul Schultz began organizing the fund raiser in January for the 5th year but this year Knights of Columbus had a new challenge to overcome.

Last year sales were slower and he didn't expect to match the $25,000-$30,000 that has been raised in some years but he was looking around the $10,000 mark. The Battlefield Council of the Knights of Columbus has been selling fireworks on Route 3 near Fredericksburg in Spotsylvania, VA for over 18 years and they have always had tent space offered to them by local businesses.

This year every business that Mr. Schultz approached said no. Having to rent parking lot space for the tent would have taken a huge portion of the sales profits which support a long list of charitable organizations including food banks, shelters, churches and youth opportunities like the Boy Scouts.

The answer came from Phantom^® Brand Fireworks based in Youngstown, OH. If the Battlefield Council Knights of Columbus changed vendors and exclusively sold Phantom Fireworks they would pay for the site rental.
Although the previous vendor, TNT Fireworks, was easy to work with and offered a slightly higher profit Paul Schultz took the opportunity and began making arrangements since without a location there would be no sale.

Entirely run by volunteers the firework stand has a small army of 75 Knights of Columbus and 30 women from the Ladies Auxiliary. Their biggest retail supporter has been a nearby Giant grocery store that allows them to borrow carts for moving the inventory in and out of the blue storage containers each day. Unfortunately Giant was not able to help with location because they do not control their customer parking lot and the property manager said no.

Another blow came once the inventory was in and the tent was going up when the Knights of Columbus tried to put out signs. Spotsylvania Towne Center where they are located and the surrounding businesses would not grant permission for them to put up signs on Rt. 3 to attract traffic to their fireworks tent near Costco.

The Fredericksburg Knights of Columbus financial goal is to raise $8000 this year. They hope that loyal customers from past years will find them without having signs up on Rt. 3 which is a major artery through town.

Both Paul Schultz and Bill Phillips who were at the fireworks tent this morning agreed that sales have been slow this year just like last year but they expect the big day to be tomorrow, July 3rd, when the legions of Federal workers who commute to Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. from Fredericksburg have the day off for the holiday weekend. They also hope to sell out on the 4th of July so that they do not have to incur any expense shipping left over fireworks back to Phantom.