Car-Mart holds annual fan drive

Standing in the foreground are Dishawn Bell, (left) general manager of Car-Mart, and Kendra Boone, the sales manager, as they take pictures of their employees and representatives of Area Agency on Aging. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Byron Tate)
Standing in the foreground are Dishawn Bell, (left) general manager of Car-Mart, and Kendra Boone, the sales manager, as they take pictures of their employees and representatives of Area Agency on Aging. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Byron Tate)

Monday was a hot day on the used car lot, but that didn't stop employees from loading the 67 box fans they had collected into vehicles headed for the Area Agency on Aging for Southeast Arkansas.

It was the annual promotion at Car-Mart, and the staff said it had been successful: Bring in two box fans and get $1,000 off the down payment on a car.

"It helps the community, and that's the whole thing," said Dishawn Bell, general manager of Car-Mart, located on Blake Street. "We try to do something to give back a little bit."

The fan collection effort, called Beat the Heat Fan Drive, is going on across the 10 counties in southeast Arkansas that the Area Agency on Aging oversees, said Carolyn Ferguson, an officer in the community services division of the agency. Ferguson was on-site with Lauren Bland, the agency's communication coordinator.

The goal for Jefferson County is to collect 300 fans, which will be distributed to people 60 and older and to the disabled.

Already, people in the community are clamoring for the fans, Bland said.

"They're desperate," she said.

"They've already started calling."

Bland said the fans are needed by the elderly and the disabled because they may not have any type of cooling, whether that be a fan or an air conditioner, in their residences and not enough money to buy them.

"We don't just deal with the heat here in Arkansas," she said. "We also deal with the humidity."

Ferguson said the agency may get in a handful of air conditioners each year but that the elderly seem to prefer the fans.

"It might be the cost," Ferguson said, "but some just can't stand all that AC blowing on them."

Ferguson said she normally waits a little later into the summer to start handing out the fans, but considering the calls the agency is already getting, she will start distributing them next week.

Kendra Boone, sales manager at Car-Mart, said the company has a promotion at this time every year.

"Most of them, we normally have right before the summer season," she said, after carrying an armload of fans from inside the office to the waiting vehicles outside. "It's always a donation to charity."

Ferguson said that those wanting a fan should call (870) 543-6300 and get their name on the list.

A caseworker would then call each person to verify that they qualify.

Asked if 300 fans would satisfy the demand in Jefferson County, Ferguson shook her head.

"We could always use more," she said, adding that individuals and businesses could contact the agency to make arrangements to donate additional fans.

Kendra Boone, sales manager at Car-Mart, shoves an armload of fans into a car headed for the Area Agency on Aging for Southeast Arkansas on Monday. The dealership collected 67 fans for the agency's Beat the Heat Fan Drive. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Byron Tate)
Kendra Boone, sales manager at Car-Mart, shoves an armload of fans into a car headed for the Area Agency on Aging for Southeast Arkansas on Monday. The dealership collected 67 fans for the agency's Beat the Heat Fan Drive. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Byron Tate)

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