President Of Local Jaycees Responds To Post

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

travis@salisburyjc.com