August 2010 - Citizen Potawatomi Nation

8 HowNiKan August (Mskominen Gises) 2010, vol. 31 issue 4
July Means Success for FireLake Discount Foods
by Paige Willett & Andrew Adamietz
You’ve been waiting for 20 minutes. You
look ahead at the FireLake Discount Foods
checkout area and notice that all 15 checkout
stands are full. Not only is your cart
filled with party supplies, meats, and
desserts for the upcoming July 4th weekend,
but so are the eight shopping carts
ahead of you.
That was the scene at FireLake Discount
Foods early last month. That week was so
successful for the tribe’s grocery store, a
new sales record was set at an impressive
$1.8 million dollars.
Richard Driskell, director of FireLake
Discount Foods, says, “July 4th is typically
our busiest week of the entire year; it beats
Thanksgiving, Christmas, all of our major
holidays.”
The store grossed $375,000 and served
8,000 customers on July 1st alone. By July
6th, the new record was reached at just
under 2 million dollars. The three most popular
items for the week included Pork n’
Beans, Vienna Sausages, and T-Bone
steaks. Name brand sodas, such as Coca-
Cola and Pepsi, grossed $38,000.
Driskell explains, “We are one of the
highest-volume soda stores in the state. We
do a lot of volume yearly and especially
during that week with Coke and Pepsi products.”
He credits marketing and timing for
the success of the store.
Nicole Sanchez, FireLake Foods marketing
coordinator, says, “Generally, we mail
out (sales flyer) to about 130,000 households,
which there’s about four people per
FireLake Discount Foods manager Richard Driskell discusses the supermarket’s success, a
large portion of which is attributed to the hard work of such employees as Zack Taylor (at right).
household, so your going to reach more than that, about double that.”
FireLake Foods inserts sale flyers into 10 different newspapers, and reaches a 50-mile
radius. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation Reunion Festival added to the week’s success.
Many tribal members remained in the area after the festival, and FireLake was able to
mail separate handouts for Festival and July 4th.
Being a tribal enterprise, FireLake Discount Foods is unique. Profit for the store means
profit for the Nation, in that all taxes collected by the store benefit tribal programs. Driskell
says, “It goes back to the Tribal Tax Authority that we send to them, instead of to the state.
And then the tax authority for the Nation ends up dispersing that the way they choose to
disperse it by their guidelines.”
The tribe’s involvement in the grocery business also stimulates the economy of the surrounding
area. In Tecumseh at FireLake Express Grocery, three percent of the taxes col-
lected are given to the city as a gift.
FireLake Discount Foods has proven
time and time again to be one of the tribe’s
most profitable enterprises. With annual
sales of more than $45 million, the store has
frequently set new sales records since its
opening in May 2001. The store has a commitment
to its service, quality, and community,
all of which contribute to the success
of the store, and ultimately the Citizen
Potawatomi Nation.
Paige Willett and Andrew Adamietz are
2010 participants in the Citizen Potawatomi
Nation’s Potawatomi Leadership
Program. Both are studying Journalism in
college, with an eye on careers in journalism.
In the upcoming academic year,
Paige will be a sophomore at The University
of Oklahoma. Andrew will be a freshman
at Penn State University.
CPN member Andy Young, 18, planned to be an architect
Army Reserve enlistee lived his short life to the fullest
by TIM STANLEY – Tulsa World Staff Writer
BOLEY, Oklahoma - He had hoisted
heavy barbells over his head countless
times, but suddenly just lifting a pen was
challenge enough to Andy Young. Even in
those anxious moments, though, the Army
Reserve enlistee and former high-school
weightlifting star was resolved to finish
what he started. “He couldn’t speak while
in the intensive care unit so he wrote notes
by hand,” Young's aunt Amanda Salisbury
said. “The first one he wrote when he came
to said, ‘I want to finish.’”
Young, who planned to go to college to
study architecture, was committed to another
goal first: becoming a soldier. His
note indicated that he wanted to go back to
boot camp, Salisbury said. “Andy was the
kind of soldier that everybody wants,” she
added. “In the face of his own pain and fear,
he still wanted so badly to be there.”
After graduating from Okemah, Oklahoma
High School in June, the Boley resident
had reported to Fort Leonard Wood,
Missouri for basic training. But a few
weeks in, Young had to be taken to a hospital
where he was diagnosed with an aggressive
form of leukemia. Stephen Andrew
‘Andy’ Young died three weeks later on August
11. He was 18.
A memorial service was held at 10 a.m.
on Saturday, August 13, 2010 at Mangum,
Oklahoma High School auditorium. A
graveside service followed at Riverside
Cemetery in Mangum with full military
honors. People's Cooperative Funeral
Home in Lone Wolf handled the arrangements.
Andy Young’s plans for the future were
already made. At age 17, with his parents’
blessing, he had enlisted in the Army Reserve.
Upon finishing basic, his plan was to
begin technical training for a specialized
Reserve branch prepared to deal with chemical,
biological, and nuclear attacks. Young
was then going to start college at Oklahoma
State University to become an architect.
And that wasn’t all. He also planned to
marry his fiancée, Sarah Dyer. “Andy had
amazing foresight and a tremendous sense
of purpose,” Salisbury said.
A two-time state champion in weightlifting,
who also excelled at baseball and
rodeo, Young “lived like he was dying,” his
mother Tammy Young, a CPN member,
said. “He lived every moment like it was his
last and never took anything for granted.”
Young was a proud member of the Citizen
Potawatomi Nation. “His family is serious
about their Indian heritage and it’s
important for them,” Salisbury said.