Community Organizations Actively Promoting Support for the Proposed Wawa

As you may remember, our prior story mentioned that there were letters of support within the Wawa proposal from the Conshy Bears and the Soap Box Derby.  I emailed the signers of each letter and asked if Wawa, or the developer, had provided sponsorship.  Here are the responses:

Conshy Bears

Good to hear from you. I enjoy keeping up with things around town and having one place to go to find that out is a great resource.

You are correct in your recollections about 2010; our initial primary concerns were safety at our facilities and potential loss of concession revenues.

Not long after the start of this season; the CYFA board and I met with the Wawa development team to address our concerns. Their team listened carefully to our concerns and put careful thought into how those concerns can be satisfied.

I am sure the details of how Wawa and the developer will address any safety concerns near our facilities will be of focus in future public meetings.

I didn’t include comment about concessions in my letter because we also realize it is not relevant to public officials when deciding the fate of this project.

To address your question on contributions; yes, Wawa and the development team did participate in our sponsorship program this season, the same program we offered to the entire business community in Conshohocken.

I hope you are not insinuating any type of back room deal was made, that would be considered an insult to our board and our entire organization.

We clearly see the benefit to this project and look forward to Wawa being a great community partner into the future.

Thanks,

Rob DeVitis
President – CYFA

From the Soap Box Derby

Wawa purchased a super stock car for this years race, they also donated $1000 towards the program, and for the awards banquet, Wawa gave each of the three winning families a gift bag containing shirts, sweatshirts and a $100 gift card. During the day of July 4th, all day they were there with juice and iced teas and various refreshments. When I asked if they were interested for next year they responded of course most definitely! any questions call me, Mark Marine

Today I received a forwarded email that the Conshy Bears sent out asking the parents to support the proposed Wawa by signing the online petition.  The email states:

Dear Conshohocken Bears Parents,

The CYFA Board is excited to announce that we recently entered into a sponsorship program with Wawa and their development team, Provco Pineville Fayette, LP !!

As you are aware, a new Wawa store has been proposed for the Moore Chevy site at 11th Avenue and Fayette Street in Conshohocken, which is in close proximity to both the A and B field.

Near the beginning of the season we sat down with the Wawa development team to discuss the proposed site plans and go over any concerns we had.

If you recall, our primary initial concern was related to how the traffic flow of the store would affect the safety of our players, cheerleaders and fans at the fields.  The board was confident after meeting with the Wawa team that they have carefully considered the vehicular and pedestrian traffic flow around the area and configured the site plans to maximize our safety and convenience.   The priority of the CYFA is the safety of our organization and their families and I know you can appreciate this concern.

As you all know, we work hard as an organization to provide the safest equipment, newest uniforms and best facilities to our team members and families. This key sponsorship will help us achieve those goals in future years.

Wawa and their team have demonstrated their commitment to our organization and our goal is to help ensure we maintain it for the long term.  The CYFA board is excited about their support and partnership and hope that you are as well. We can assure you that both Wawa and its development team are committed to an outstanding result and to a positive, ongoing relationship with us and with the broader community.

Right now, the easiest way for you to join the CYFA in showing your support for this key sponsorship is to click the link below to support the recently proposed Wawa project.

We urge you to support this newly formed partnership … Your vote will make the difference!!

www.wewantconshohockenwawa.com

As always, please feel free to reach out to ask any questions.

The CYFA Board

The email was forwarded to me by one of the parents, who asked not to be named, who stated, “my gut also tells me this partnership was not thought through and the donation plus future donations clouded judgement.”

So Conshy, what do you think of community organizations actively getting involved in this type of issue and do you think the fact that donations were accepted create legitimate questions regarding their support?

Comments are open!