Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
“It’s about the kids,” is the repeated mantra from a small roomful of big guys raising big bucks in the Small Business Challenge for the local charity Operation Santa Claus.
We’re stuffed tight into the studio of WCKM radio station 98.5 FM, where morning hosts Dan Miner and Pete Cloutier are joined by about a half-dozen men promoting the Challenge that the late Pete Brock created when he operated Sam’s Diner on Dix Avenue in Glens Falls.
“It’s been four years since…Pete passed,” Mr. Miner says. “Mike Sullivan (of G.A. Bove Fuels) and I, after the wake, we looked at each other sitting in The Bullpen, and we said, ‘We’re going to take it over.’”
From the left: Steve VanGuilder of Adirondack Thunder, Joq Quintal of Oscar’s Smokehouse, Jack Celeste of Coach’s Corner, Hank Pelton of Glens Falls Greenjackets Football, Pete Cloutier of WCKM, Mike Sullivan of G.A. Bove & Sons, Jeff Casey of the Adirondack Thunder, Dan Miner of WCKM, and graphic artist Herb Cloutier. Chronicle photo/Cathy DeDe
“The last year Pete did the Small Business Challenge, he raised $65,000,” Mr. Miner says. “Since then, we’ve raised over $100,000 each year — $101,000 in year one, $106,000 last year, Mr. Sullivan said.
Mr. Miner says, “It started off with Sully and me,” later joined by Pete (Cloutier of WCKM), Hank (Pelton/Glens Falls Greenjackets) and Jack (Celeste/Coach’s Corner Food Truck) and Herb (Cloutier/DW Graphics). “All of us get together and just go out and we raise money.”
They were at $75,000 as The Chronicle did this interview.
“We started back in August with our go kart race,” Mr. Miner says, held at Adventure Family Fun Center in Queensbury.
“This year it raised $23,000, just that alone,” with 36 drivers signed on, led, he lists, by Tim and Dave Havens from Falls Farm & Garden, Warren County Sheriff Jim LaFarr and Troy Bapp.
Pete’s brother Jack Brock raised $13,000 with his annual golf tournament at Hiland Country Club.
One day when Mr. Miner and Mr. Cloutier were bored on the air at WCKM they declared a “$10,000 Friday,” and raised $1,000 each from 10 businesses.
The next week, two $5,000 days raised another $10,000-plus.
They factor in some crazy stuff. Having lost a side-challenge in the Go Kart race, they rode through a touchless car wash — on the open back of a flatbed truck.
Even dressed in protective gear, “Like, we’re still cold,” Mr. Sullivan says.
Last year, Mr. Miner vowed to eat a pizza loaded with candy corn and black olives — items he loathes — if they met a $9,000 challenge. He recalls gagging every last slice down for the cause. He’s the only one in the room not laughing.
Mr. Sullivan says, “I always tell everybody when I’m out pounding the pavement for money: Walk to the end of your driveway, do a 360. There’s 20 families within a 10-mile radius, where you have no idea who they are. They all need our help.
“Kind of a neat thing with me personally,” he says. “When Operation Santa Claus started in 1974 my father (Mike Sullivan at Toys R Joy) was the guy that wrote the very first check ever and gave it to (co-founder) Frank Munoff.”
Mr. Sullivan says it was at the start of Mr. Munoff’s first-ever 50-mile marathon walk to benefit the new cause.
“Frank got arrested,” Mr. Miner pipes in. “The cops pulled him over because they were wondering why this dude was out walking in the middle of the night.”
“The kids in this area, they need help. You see it every single day,” others in the room add. “It means a lot to all of us.”
“It’s clothing and food,” says Mr. Miner. “These are essential items for survival. A day like today, it’s 25-26 degrees. You see that kid at the bus stop that doesn’t have a jacket? There’s a good chance he really doesn’t have a jacket that fits.”
Mr. Sullivan adds: “Even the social aspect of it, after Christmas, everybody’s got a brand new jacket except for the one kid, and that’s mentally tough when you’re eight.”
Mr. Miner: “This a Band-Aid. This isn’t going to fix everything, but it’s a huge pick-me-up for these kids. A kid that feels better about themselves is going to do better at school, treat the kids around them better.
“I’ve been there on distribution day, which is just so emotional. Maybe about 50% of the people, this is the first time they’ve ever had to have help.”
Mr. Miner: “I was one of those kids….It’s a long story, but yeah. And Pete (Brock) was too, so Pete knew exactly how that is.”
For Mr. Brock, later, as an adult, after serious illnesses touched his family, “the community rallied around, so he wanted to give back,” Mr. Miner recalls.
That was the start of the Small Business Challenge. “The whole thing took on a life of its own,” Mr. Miner says. “The first year they raised $1,500 — and then it kept going up.”
Bowl with Thunder & ‘Jackets
Sunday, Dec. 15, Kingpin’s Alley in South Glens Falls hosts Bowl with the Thunder and the Greenjackets, 3 to 5 p.m. For info, more events and to donate, find the Operation Santa Small Business Challenge on Facebook.
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