SPOKANE-- There is more fallout on Thursday from the local Papa John’s restaurant closures. KREM 2 News has learned the franchise that owned those stores, North Country Pizza, didn’t pay up for fundraisers at Spokane elementary schools like it promised.
North Country Pizza hosted fundraisers almost weekly with local schools. Those schools now want to know if large fundraisers, like the Fallen Lakewood Police fund, got what was pledged.
December 5th and 6th, the local Papa John’s franchise was busy.
Customers poured in thinking the money for each pizza would go to help the families of four Lakewood police officers killed the month before.
When the stores closed, questions were raised about where those funds went, and Wednesday night store managers didn’t know.
Thursday, the Lakewood police officers’ guild called KREM 2 News assuring us it received a check from Papa John’s franchises across the state, totaling $140,000.
The guild also said part of that money came from the North Country Pizza franchise.
But in investigating North Country Pizza, KREM 2 News learned at least two local elementary schools aren’t getting what they were promised.
Annie Henson fundraises for Moran Prairie on Spokane’s South Hill.
She says the school never received two checks from fundraising events with the Papa John’s on Regal and 29th.
She says the school was owed somewhere between $150 and $200.
Grant Elementary is another victim.
The school says it only received one of three checks promised from North Country Pizza.
School officials are disappointed, because the fundraisers were heavily promoted, but everyone agrees Papa John’s will suffer the most.
Henson says it wasn’t the dollar amount that upset her so much as the loss of trust with the local franchise, and its inability to do the right thing, especially when it involved children.
