LOWNDES – Community businesses are receiving a rash of ‘cold calling’ from out-of-state vendors attempting to sell them athletic promotional items on behalf of local athletic departments.
One such company is Spirit Star out of Ft. Worth, TX.
“They call and use the name of one of our cheerleading or football coaches that they found on the Internet,” said Owen Prince, Information Director for the Lowndes County School System. “They tell the business how they represent LHS Athletics and how we need funding, etc.”
Once they receive payment from the local company they ship the items unsolicited to Lowndes, keeping all of the funds collected.
Most of the items received are purple (not crimson) and most have the Minnesota Viking logo.
“We have received unsolicited items in the colors across town and with our logo,” added Prince.
Prince wants to make it clear they do not accept these items and under no circumstances are they distributed.
“I have five boxes in my office with unsuspecting business logos waiting to be destroyed,” Prince remarked. “While we feel for our area businesses that have been duped, we cannot ‘reward’ these unscrupulous companies that prey upon our area by accepting these items.”
A legitimate fund raiser is the Viking Touchdown Club football T-shirt-shoot-out program during the season.
For $700 a year the club will print and shoot out 100 shirts before the games with your business logo and the Viking logo printed on the white shirt in crimson. This equates to $7 per shirt. The cost of the shirts is $450 and the Touchdown Club retains the remaining $250 as fund raising monies.
“I have a copy of an invoice from a local business where Spirit Star charged them $12.17 per shirt and Spirit Star retained all the funds,” Prince explained.
The Lowndes school system has discussed the matter with their attorney and asked the companies to cease soliciting on our behalf.
“Sadly, we have failed, so we are asking for each of you to help in warning our local businesses not to fall prey to these out of state solicitations,” Prince said. “If it is a legitimate LHS fundraiser, our local booster clubs and/or coaches and athletics will be involved and will contact the business – not someone from Texas.”
