Spokane County club gets less from OCC visit than expected

After more than a month of waiting, the Boys & Girls Club of Spokane County has learned it will receive much less money from the recent Orange County Choppers tour stop in Spokane than it expected.

Partly because of lower-than-expected attendance at the July 28-30 event, OCC producers will donate $10,141, a number both OCC and club officials called disappointing. In addition, the club raised about $75,000 through other fundraising events – a portion of which included bids on items donated by the motorcycle-building TV program.

Before the event, a club official had said the organization might make more than $200,000 from the sale of tickets and donated items.

The estimate for ticket proceeds alone was $20,000 to $30,000.

An additional $20,000 was expected from fans who paid to ride their motorcycles with the show’s cast.

“We wanted it to be much more, but we wanted the event to be much more as well,” said tour spokeswoman Cynthia Dunne of Scottsdale, Ariz.

The Spokane Convention and Visitors Bureau had expected as many as 55,000 visitors, based on a past tour stop in Tempe, Ariz.

But fewer than 22,000 people purchased tickets, Dunne said.

The OCC event competed with Skyfest, an annual air show at Fairchild Air Force Base that drew 70,000 people on July 29 alone.

“But it was a great opportunity to get our name out there, and we raised some pretty good money, and we were grateful to have the opportunity,” said Denise Stanton, board president for the Boys & Girls Club.

The club received 50 cents for each of the event tickets that sold for $30 to $49 each. It also received $50 from every registrant for the chopper ride, Stanton said.

Club officials had not yet budgeted the money, she said. The club offers after-school programs, meals and other activities for youth at its center on East Providence.