Cities offer fireworks alternatives

Deirdre Newman

During the recent discussion on restricting the sale of fireworks,

the rallying cry of the groups that sell them was “we need the

money.” But other cities have managed under total bans.

The council on Monday passed a law and created a council policy

restricting the sale of fireworks. Some of the changes include

reducing the number of fireworks stands and limiting high schools to

four stands each.

City Councilman Mike Scheafer, who initiated the changes, is

sympathetic to the fundraising concern. He said he’s not ready to

call for a total ban on fireworks until the groups that sell them

have other means of raising money.

That left some residents questioning how nonprofit groups and

sports teams in cities that don’t sell fireworks manage. The answer

is finding other ways like working shifts at bingo games, selling

program ads and fundraising events.

“If you take [fireworks sales] away, you gotta go find something

else,” said Paul Renfrow, the boys athletic director at Marina High

School in Huntington Beach, which banned the sale of fireworks in

1987. “If you’re trying to take the fireworks away for a good reason,

if it’s justified, then OK. I think other than that, you gotta look

and see the effect of it.”

Renfrow said not being able to sell fireworks right after they

were banned cut off a major fundraising option for the athletic

department. At the time the ban came down, however, the school began

a bingo fundraiser in its cafeteria on Sundays to raise money.

Booster organizations on campus take shifts working the event.

Groups can generate between $6,000 to $18,000 per year, Renfrow said.

His teams have also sold Christmas trees to raise money.

“We were able to rebound, but at the same time, we have the

resources to do it,” Renfrow said. “It’s a different community over

here.”

Renfrow suggested that Costa Mesa city officials work with the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District to come up with other

fundraising alternatives.

“If you keep taking fundraising away from the schools, it forces

the district to pick up the cost that the boosters have been taking

care of,” he said.

At Huntington Beach High School, some student athletes raise money

by selling ads for the programs that are available at home games,

boys’ Athletic Director Roy Miller said. Some teams also hold

fundraisers, but not as much as in the past, he added.

“Some of the teams still do carwashes,” Miller said. “We end up

finding out that you nickel and dime people to death doing that. Now,

we try to tell people that if you’re going to fundraise, it’s better

to focus on something more productive.”

In Fountain Valley, which hasn’t sold fireworks for about 15

years, the elementary and middle school district’s educational

foundation holds two annual fundraisers. In the fall, there is “A

Taste of Fountain Valley,” an event in which restaurants get to show

off culinary talents and ticket buyers sample the delicacies. There

is also an annual festival of the arts, where student artwork and

musical talent is featured and raffle tickets are sold.

“We do just fine without anything that requires a match,” said

Susan Grantham, executive assistant to the Fountain Valley School

District superintendent.

On occasion, the foundation also receives donations from

corporations in the community, Grantham added.

Scheafer said he has invited the groups that sell fireworks to

participate in the Lions Club’s Fish Fry event, at one time a

lucrative fundraiser for the group. And he would like to find more

community events during the year for these groups to participate in,

he added.

He also acknowledged that in future discussions of fireworks, the

council might need to establish an absolute deadline for the sale of

fireworks to put the groups on notice.

“We may very well need to say, ‘fireworks should get five more

years,’” Scheafer said. “I don’t know what that magic number is.

Maybe if we gave them some sort of sunset clause, they’d know what

they need to do.”