Mugs, Pie Turning Out To Be Bad Apples For Festival

Apple pie and coffee mugs may prove the undoing of Spokane’s biggest Independence Day celebration.

Organizers say they need money to pay 1994 Neighbor Days’ bills or there won’t be a festival at Riverfront Park this July 4.

The non-profit organization is $49,000 in debt, and needs much of the money by the end of the month, said coordinator Lee McLeron.

“If I could have a pledge of $20,000, we would be able to go forward,” said McLeron. “Most of the creditors - all but two - are local. They’ve been involved for years and they want to see it (the 1995 event) happen.”

At least two creditors are growing impatient.

One supplied nine tons of sliced apples and other ingredients for a 33,000-pound apple pie, which put Spokane in the 1995 Guinness Book of World Records. The company, which McLeron would not identify, is suing for $3,600.

The pie, from which 15,000 slices were sold for $1 apiece, was supposed to be a moneymaker. Organizers underestimated the $19,000 cost.

“When you put together all the things that had to go with it - the tent rental, the forks and paper plates, the storage for it, because it had to be kept cold - that pie was expensive,” said McLeron.

Organizers also underestimated the number of custom coffee mugs they could sell, McLeron said. They purchased 5,000 at $2.50 each. They sold fewer than 200 for $5 each.

As a result, Neighbor Days owes about $17,000 to its mug supplier, the Vernon Co. of Hayden, Idaho. Mike Williams, district manager for the advertising firm, said Vernon will sue if necessary.

“We normally aggressively work to collect accounts,” he said. “The mugs are definitely useless to us because they’re imprinted with a logo that’s not applicable to any other event.”

Neighbor Days started in 1976 and was sponsored by KREM-2 television for 10 years. Other donors covered the cost from 1986 until 1993, when a major sponsor pulled out, forcing organizers to seek government money and drop the Spokane Symphony from its schedule. The symphony charged $25,000 for the performances.

The city gave Neighbor Days $27,000 in 1993 and $15,000 last year. The county provided $5,000 in 1993 and $10,000 in 1994.

Last year’s event included several dances and concerts, hot-air balloon rides and county Commissioner Steve Hasson in a sumo wrestling contest. McLeron called attendance “phenomenal.”