~~NO MORE Kmart Cruise In!!!~~

by RebStew February 6th 2009, 7:11 am

Just a few words about the Kmart Cruise In. It was a lot of fun and I think we really needed a local cruise, in Newport. We only had a few problems through the summer that was worked out with the trouble makers the day of or the following week. I don't think you could have asked for a better group of guys and cars that showed up every Thursday night. A thank you should go out to all the club members that helped out and or just showed up to show support. THANK YOU!

The money we took in from split the pot at The Newport Car Show went to The Newport Fishing Derby. It is a great thing to sponsor, if you ask me. One of the Captains from the police department has been taking his own money as well as some donated cash and renting a bus, buying fishing poles and night crawlers and getting a pass into a park so that some inner city kids can spend the day fishing. To some of us this is not a big deal. Think of it like this. A lot of kids within the city limits have never been to a fishing hole, some have never seen a live fish other than a small pet in a tank. I figured that the Kmart Cruise could help out a lot with the fishing derby.

Now for the bad stuff !!!!!
When we said we would sponsor the cruise one of the terms was that all profits would go to a good cause. The DJ that also works at Kmart showed up every week we had the cruise. He even had his older kids show up and grill the hotdogs. I thought that Jim, the DJ was a stand up guy for doing all this just for the fun of it and to be able to give a little bit of money for a good cause. Man was I wrong!!! Our last cruise was in late Oct. Jim said he had all the money from the sale of food and pop at home in small bills and change. He said he would get it together and give me a call to pick it up. A week or so went by and I never heard from him. I started calling and he said he would get it togther. This went on and on. I started pushing the issue a little harder after I started crunching the numbers. The club spent money on 90% of the door prizes as well as buying all the hotdogs and buns. Kmart offered the pop and ice but we had to pay for it at the end of the night. I'm not sure how much pop we went through but I know how many hotdogs. We went through 6 to 8 packs of hotdogs every week. Sometime we even had to leave the show to go get more. It did slow down the last two weeks of the show but on a very conservative side we can say we averaged 7 packs of hotdogs a week. 8 hot dogs in a pack. Each hotdog was only 50 cents. Doesn't sound like much does it? We had 3 rain out days so we spent 15 weeks at Kmart. It comes up to $28.00 every Thursday, 15 days is $420.00! $420 bucks from just dogs!! This is all profit. The club was never paid back for this and it never was intended that we get any cash back. The money was to go for the Newport Fishing Derby. So at the very least it should have been $420 not counting what Jim got from Kmart. He brought from Kmart a few cases of pop, every Thursday plus ice. He sold the pop for 50 cents a can. Now the profit only off the pop was suppose to go with the hotdog money. Kmart wanted paid for their pop but even if he paid Kmart at the end of the night you know Jim made a profit from the pop. Now on with the bad stuff. I talk to Jim again and after giving me the run around about his kids being sick and he couldn't meet with me for a few more day I pushed pretty hard on getting the cash. A few days later he called and said he could right a check. He went on about it not being as much as I thought it was. He also went on to say, several times that it was all there and he didn't take any of the money for himself. Sounds fishy doesn't it??? I ask well how much is it? Jim replies $80.00. We talked a bit more(confronted) but what it boils down to is he pocketed a few 100 bucks for himself. I was pretty upset and figured 80 was better than nothing so I just told him to give it to Lori and I'd pick it up from her. Which he did. Today 12-23-08 I took the $80.00 check to the Cheif of Police and gave it to him. I also went through the story I just told you. He wasn't too happy and I have to say that I felt like a fool. I had already told the Chief that we were giving all the profits from the Kmart Cruise to the Newport Fishing Derby. The money that Jim pocketed would have went a long way in helping out a really good cause. The Chief was happy to get the 80 bucks and thanked us for it but I sure wish it would have worked out better. I'm not sure how much the pop would have made a profit but I'm figuring we should have had at least 5 or 600 bucks when added to our food sales. Watching Jim load up at night and going home makes me wonder if he even paid for the pop and ice he got from Kmart. One thing is for sure. Everytime we let someone outside the club handle something for us it seems we get screwed. From now on club members will handle 100% of any activities we do. No more outside sources.

by xycho_wraith February 6th 2009, 10:35 am

my dad keep all the change he made w his pop macine 50 cent a can or so and after like 10 years of collecting it when all was said and done there was over 2500 no joke and the pop sales wasnt that big in a bassment of a run down apt bil.....so any ways ur numbers sound abought right a ton of pop was drank at kmart over the summer

me and rigs alone prob spent 20 alone so.

by xycho_wraith February 6th 2009, 10:36 am

i wasnt looking foward to listing to his broken record this year any who

by LRS30 February 6th 2009, 2:04 pm

It takes a real scum bag to steal money slated for a kids function, in my mind its no different then the (BEEP) hat's that held up the Boy Scouts for there X-mas tree sales money..It takes a certain kinda person to do such a thing,,, A BLEEPING BLEEPHOLE!

That guy deserves every flat tire, dead battery, sniffling, sneezing,coughing, achey,anal leakage infection he gets for the rest of his life....

by Cratethis February 6th 2009, 4:13 pm

It's sad to hear that a good thing ended up this way. I agree with Steve that somehow we as club members should work at covering everything associated with club functions. Keeping it in house will at least help us keep a better grasp of what is going on.

by Mr. Fabulous February 6th 2009, 4:55 pm

LRS30..............Why don't ya say what you really feel!

I agree that people like this are lower than a snakes belly and the only safeguard is to do it all inhouse. At least that way if there's a problem, you can handle it within the club.

by RebStew February 6th 2009, 5:49 pm

That is one reason I'm looking for a PA system or something to spin music. I've said that to a few club members and when I tell them what they are going for they look at me like I'm nuts. The club run on a very tight budget so getting something like this is going to be hard to do. Maybe we could start up a donation jar or something? We tried that in tehpast and it didn't really work out to good. I'm open for suggestions.
If we turn our own music we won't have to worry about stuff like this. It was hard on me to take the Chief an $80.00 check when I already told him that we would be making a good cash deposit for the Fishing Derby. I felt like a fool! Anyone that knows me real good knows how I feel about the DJ. I won't post it on the open forum :!:

by fuel10922 February 6th 2009, 6:09 pm

RebStew wrote:That is one reason I'm looking for a PA system or something to spin music. I've said that to a few club members and when I tell them what they are going for they look at me like I'm nuts. The club run on a very tight budget so getting something like this is going to be hard to do. Maybe we could start up a donation jar or something? We tried that in tehpast and it didn't really work out to good. I'm open for suggestions.

How about running some auctions to support the club? Such as the auctions posted on the HAMB. Club members or people who are registered on the site might want to donate parts or what ever for auction. Just an idea.....

by RebStew February 6th 2009, 6:16 pm

fuel10922 wrote:
RebStew wrote:That is one reason I'm looking for a PA system or something to spin music. I've said that to a few club members and when I tell them what they are going for they look at me like I'm nuts. The club run on a very tight budget so getting something like this is going to be hard to do. Maybe we could start up a donation jar or something? We tried that in tehpast and it didn't really work out to good. I'm open for suggestions.
How about running some auctions to support the club? Such as the auctions posted on the HAMB. Club members or people who are registered on the site might want to donate parts or what ever for auction. Just an idea.....

Not a bad idea.

by Cratethis February 6th 2009, 6:25 pm

I have stuff we can use for the time being (for D.J.ing). I have things here at church that I can bring down to use. Also a very easy setup. Even if I can't be down there I can show someone in the club how to set it up/and run it. Super easy! Plus, once the club is able and ready to buy something let me know... it's what I do with my job... I'll help find us the best deal and the best stuff for what we are wanting to do with it.

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