Hi Joe.
I must admit that I am very disappointed in the post that you put up last night. And that you chose to hold back comments defending the Jaycees while letting the multiple Aqua employee posts go through (and I know they were from Aqua – I was in the bar when they were being posted).
As a past Jaycee, I would think that you would appreciate all the hard work that we do for the community. I guess in your world trashing somebody’s good name is worth about 50 comments on your blog. That’s sad.
Since Blogger won’t accept this rebuttal, I would appreciate it if you would give our message its own post.
T.
As a member of the Jaycees, I feel that this inflammatory post deserves a response. I would be especially grateful if he made this comment itself a post, to give equal voice to both sides.
The Salisbury Jaycees are men and women, ages 18 - 40, who perform community service projects as a way to teach leadership skills, promote networking, and improve our community. We've been active for more than 70 years. Our network of chapters extends across the globe. Locally, many of our members volunteer more than 500 hours per year to make Salisbury a better place. When you factor in our friends and sponsors giving us a hand, we provide approximately 10,000 hours of community service to our town every year.
We have run Treat Street since 2008. It was started in response to the need to provide our children with a safe Trick or Treating experience. Areas like Camden Ave are very stable and great. But not everybody lives in a neighborhood like that. Just a few days ago, two people on Margaret Street were shot on their front porch. Would you want your children walking around that area at night? Or would you prefer to go someplace well lighted and safe like the downtown plaza?
The Jaycees leased the plaza and a parking lot behind the plaza for our event. We do this so that we have tenant occupation rights to the area for the evening. Without this lease, the plaza is a public space. The reality of the situation is that sometimes scary people show up and loiter around hundreds of children. And sometimes people show up with their own agenda that isn't compatible with a safe trick or treating event. In these instances, we use the lease to have people removed from the area. Leasing public space like this is very common – we also do this to help the Boy Scouts run their soapbox derby in the parking garage. I believe that it's done on Third Fridays and the Salisbury Festival, also. This might also be how the flea market obtains their parking lot.
The donations that we receive from our generous sponsors help us to defray the expenses of hosting Treat Street for nearly 2000 people. We purchase and control the candy so that we can ensure that the children are receiving untainted products. In exchange for their donations, these sponsors are given positive exposure to event participants. Sometimes, they even choose to join us by volunteering themselves. They also get to enjoy an awesome town that offers residents programs like Treat Street, and many times their Jaycee participation gives them access to outstanding employees who love living in Salisbury and possess great leadership skills.
Our Treat Street program was a huge success last night. We registered nearly 750 children, which was a record for us. We ran this program as a loss to our chapter, because we love giving children and their families great experiences. Overall attendance on the plaza, including parents and volunteers, was probably close to 2000. Those are fantastic numbers for any event held in the downtown plaza.
In the case of Aqua, we were confronted with unknown persons passing out unknown candy. If we allowed any random person to hand out candy or occupy the plaza, there would be a significant risk that something bad could happen. How bad would the publicity be if there were headlines like "My Child Was Abducted at the Jaycees' Treat Street!" or "The Jaycees Gave Me Poison Candy!"? Allowing just anybody to pass out whatever they want really doesn't meet our promise of providing participants with a safe environment.
The fact of the case is that Aqua was invited to participate in our event twice. They declined both times. We send a contact request out, and if we get a positive response we're grateful. If we get no response, we move on. I won't go into speculation as to why Phil decline to participate when we ask, but then decide to participate as a rogue distributor of candy to children. The public can come up with their own opinion.
Could our member have handled it in a more polite manner? Certainly. For that, I would like to apologize to Phil and the staff at Aqua. We are certainly not perfect people. We have made mistakes in the past, and we'll make mistakes in the future. But we're always going to try our best to make Salisbury a better place.
Beezer - since you want to investigate the Jaycees according to your post, you are more than welcome to contact me. I would be happy to speak with you about our chapter and how we operate.
Joe - You know very well why we didn't contact you about Treat Street this year. What we did was very respectful towards you based upon certain communications. I won't get into the details here, but I would be happy to send you copies of old emails to refresh your memory if you want them. Just let me know.
To those who want to bring Mayor Ireton into the mix - he had nothing to do with some sort of conspiratorial agenda. Our charter explicitly states that we are not to engage in politics. For more than 70 years, we have had good relations with every mayor of Salisbury. In fact, the Jaycee program has brought our town many mayors, council members, and community minded business men and women.
To those who think that this event can be done better, it's easy to complain. I'll issue you a challenge. Become an active volunteer to build our community. Donate your time to one of our causes, and I'll donate my own time to one of yours. Together this town will be even better, because we found a way to work together. It's not about egos, it's about enjoying where you live by making a personal investment in your community.
It's our wish that this negative situation can be turned into something positive. Anybody who wants to learn about the Jaycees are invited to visit our website: www.salisburyjc.com. ; You can also find us on FaceBook to learn more about our programs and projects as they happen.
We have our next membership meeting on November 19, at the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce. Anybody who is 18-40 is welcome to see what we are all about. Email me for more info.
Businesses, non-profits, clubs, etc. are welcome to help to share in the Christmas Spirit by participating in the Annual Salisbury Jaycees Christmas Parade. This is another project that we run, at a loss to the chapter, to make our community better. So please don't think we're trying to extort the town by using the street to make tons of money. Entry forms are available at our website.
The Salisbury Jaycees, in conjunction with our non-profit Salisbury Jaycee Foundation, seeks to provide nearly 200 underprivileged children with a Christmas that they would most likely never receive each year, as well. We would love to work with more people to make this project bigger and easier to run. You can learn more about our foundation at www.sbyjcfoundation.org.
I would be happy to field any direct comments that anybody may have regarding the Salisbury Jaycees. My email is below.
Most respectfully,
Travis Fisher
72nd President and 2012 Chairman of the Board
24 comments:
A nice letter. Not sure the "Phil knows why"/ "Joe knows why" was necessary but a nice letter nonetheless. Thanks Jaycees for the explanation. I had no clue this event even existed.
All this sounds really great Travis, however the fact is we should not be charging people 50.00 to participate in a childrens activity for kids, or to be trying to run people off of the plaza who are trying to make something out of it.
Furthermore, I was one of the contributors and I have NOTHING to do with Aqua. It is just the principle of it all. So your little wordy article can be gone....it just isn't right and I will never support the Jaycees again!!!
Blah blah blah, polical correctness. Blah Blah. Its simple, the post could have been a lot shorter. You could have just said: "I do apologize for the way my volunteers acted and I will try my hardest to ensure this does not happen again." If you don't like Joe's post, then pay more attention to who you allow to volunteer. Don't blame him for reporting what he stood there and witnessed.
I thought the downtown plaza was public space anytime. How can someone or some organization "rent" it and decide who can come and go or what activities can take place there. Something is not right with this story.
Oh good lord. Now Mr. Fisher has to get his hands into the mix and signify? Sounds like a bunch of punks to me, no offense.
He goes on to say how wrong that particular member was and how the situation was handled poorly. Which I think everyone agrees with.
They may do this type of thing as a benefit to the children and the parents.
But after the episode on the plaza, and after reading this letter, I think it would be in everyone's best interest if the Jaycee's found another venue to pass out candy.
An area that is not already occupied with businesses and tenants.
There are a few instances in this 'letter' that seem odd and out of line to me. Hence:
In the case of Aqua, we were confronted with unknown persons passing out unknown candy. If we allowed any random person to hand out candy or occupy the plaza, there would be a significant risk that something bad could happen. How bad would the publicity be if there were headlines like "My Child Was Abducted at the Jaycees' Treat Street!" or "The Jaycees Gave Me Poison Candy!"? Allowing just anybody to pass out whatever they want really doesn't meet our promise of providing participants with a safe environment.
And in this one it seems like he is trying to insinuate something:
I won't go into speculation as to why Phil decline to participate when we ask, but then decide to participate as a rogue distributor of candy to children. The public can come up with their own opinion.
But at least you admit your guy(s) was rude and made a mistake, for which you apologize.
Overall, I think the whole situation was ridiculous and reflects poorly on the Jaycee organization.
Good luck in your future endeavours and hopefully everyone can come away with a better understanding of how things should be run, or not run.
Hey business owner has the right to pass out candy at his establishment. Period. The Jaycees are jokes and I'm about tired of hearing about them. They are about as useless as a bump on a frog's butt.
funny how he uses the incident on margaret st as an example for a bad area as compared to a "stable" area like camden ave. one of the boys arrested for that shooting had an address in 400 block of camden ave, as stated in the police press release on this very site.
"I won't go into speculation as to why Phil decline to participate when we ask, but then decide to participate as a rogue distributor of candy to children. The public can come up with their own opinion."
Was a pretty tacky comment wasn't it? ~~ "Rogue distributor of candy"~~ I've come up with my own opinion and it is that the dramatics are totally uncalled for.
Next time Travis Fisher writes an official letter representing the Jaycees he needs to sleep and ponder on it for a few days. In the mean time does anyone have a copy of the book "How To Win Friends and Influence People" for him to borrow?
1:26, that end of Camden is anything but stable. Also, he failed to mention that Camden does not just pass out candy or decorate for Camden residents. Families from all over the city DRIVE to the Camden area to trick or treat because the residents have made them welcome and they have fought to keep their neighborhood as safe as they can. For their trouble, they are constantly put down by slumlords and their politico puppets.
Camden residents probably served far more kids from other neighborhoods than the Jaycees did. I don't live in the Camden area but have many friends who do in houses big and small. They are the most generous bunch you would ever want to meet, including those who don't have much more than many in other neighborhoods.
@ 1:20
And what have you ever done to give back to the community? You can sit there in your computer chair and criticize all you want but until you actually go out and contribute I think you're the bump.
How is charging $50.00 to someone who wroks there everyday, because he is passing out candy, helping what so ever @1:46? The Aqua employee seems to me to be the most level headed of the bunch, I would have slapped the fool asking me for $50.00 when I own the establishment he/she is standing at.
How does renting the plaza keep out potential kidnappers of children? Would rather have the business owners there every day then the Jaycees there one night a year.
Plaza: 1
Jaycee:0
dear travis,
suck it!
thanks
I am sure Travis is loving these comments lol. He sounds like a complete tool in his "I think we deserve our own post" post.
4:01 PM
Yeah you're probably right. But then, who cares?
I went to jc's site. They state you need to be 18-40 years old to be a member.
If that is the majority age group in that cult that would explain the mentality displayed but the guy on the plaza as well as the letter writer.
Shame they attempted to do a good thing and have it ruined, mostly by somebody's mouth and at least two people's attitudes.
If you're going to do something, just do it. Don't whine about the loss you're taking. Don't display a holier-than-thou attitude.
We all have seen what that gets you, as evidenced by these comments.
It takes a big person to write nasty, anonymous comments that attack local volunteers. I'll pray that one day you can grow by building others up, instead of trying to tear others down to your level.
A volunteer misspoke and was rude? Why take it out on the whole organization. The premise behind the $50.00 is an EVENT SPONSORSHIP not paying to hand out candy. Non-profits charge for event sponsorship every day. I can assure you there are plenty of other non-profits out there that have had bad volunteers and bad PR because of it. The Jaycees will learn from this. They do a lot of good things for the community. I wont let one bad thing ruin my opinion of them.
Dear Mr. Travis Fisher,
Your letter may have been much better had you left out the personal comments about a poster, Joe, and Aqua. Sounds to me like a President and Chairman of an organization should know when to bite their tongue. If you think this letter helped people to better understand your side of the story, in my opinion I think it backfired. I have lost all respect for the Jaycees, on your behalf.
This WHIOLE thing is being blown WAY out of proportion, and I have no ties to either side. Can't we chalk it up to the Jaycees trying awfully hard to help children have fun in a safe way, AND Aqua trying equally hard to be a good citizen as a new business on the plaza? There is no need to trash either side.
Some of you guys sound like a bunch of pansy women fighting over a bake sale!! (And I'm a woman!)
The Jaycees ave done wonderful work in this community for decades. Aqua is getting great word of mouth reviews and I look forward to eating there.
Take the high road, everyone!
"rogue candy distributor" heavens forbid, call in the army maybe the UN, how dare he! Off with his head!
Give me a break just another mental midget full of himself! Geez people I am tired of watching and seeing this type of behavior from supposed adults here in smallsbury, acting like they are so high and mighty and in charge of the freaking world! get a grip!
You show just how petty and stupid you are, bunch of freaking losers. But just keep telling yourselves how wonderful you are!
My understanding was that the guy in question wanted to apologize to the owner of Aqua but was told not to by Mr Fisher.He was told by Fisher that a letter was in progress and not to make comments to anyone regarding the issue.
There's a simple solution. If Phil wants to hand out free candy, he can run Treat Street next year. Everyone who commented about how bad it is to ask for sponsorship can come out and help Phil and his staff at Aqua organize and run it.
Don't forget you'll have to pay for Treat Street out of your own pocket since it's evil to ask for donations and sponsorship.
And remember Phil, your liable if some stranger that is handing out candy hurts a child. But no one would ever do that, would they?
Well said Mr. Fisher and well said 4:25... Folks, I have been involved in non-profit organizations and non-profit events for years, and the reality is that these events require money to operate. That means sponsorships and donations.
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