Downtown businesses pitch in to help fund fireworks

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) –- After Wilmington lost its biggest sponsor of the firework show in February, it considered spending an additional $15,000 to fund the display on top of the $10,000 the budget allows for.

At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting some of the downtown businesses opened their pocketbooks to help the cause.

“The business community understands the partnership between the city and the businesses. There’s been a lot of investment made by the city in downtown and I think this is one way I think that this is one way the business community is saying we recognize that,” said Joan Loch, owner of the Crescent Moon.

Loch says she has collected almost $6,000 from local businesses, an amount that only took a week to come up with.

“There are still a lot of phone calls out there. There are still a lot of people responding back. I would anticipate we’ll probably have at least $10,000, and you know, it may continue on,” Loch said.

Loch says some of the contributing businesses include Smoke, the Henrietta, Husk and Slice of Life to name a few.

“The restaurants and the eateries we approached were all very quick and decisive to say, ‘Yes. We’ll help,'” Loch said.

Help the City of Wilmington is very thankful to have.

“I thank you for stepping up in this tough time to try and find this money,” Mayor Bill Saffo told Loch. “I really appreciate that.”

Loch says there is talk among downtown businesses to host a fireworks fundraiser to raise additional funds. The details have not been worked out yet.