CUMMINGTON — Days after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the Cummington Fair posted a message on its Facebook page Tuesday that read: “We want to thank KC Small Arms for sponsoring the 2019 Cummington Fair!”
KC Small Arms is an Easthampton store that sells handguns, long guns and ammunition, among other items. More than the sponsorship itself, the timing and tone of the fair’s social media post upset some people who saw it.
“I thought it felt disconnected with the moment,” Marissa Hoechstetter, who grew up in Cummington and now lives in Northampton, told the Gazette Wednesday. With the nation still reeling from the attacks, the post’s cheerful tone and exclamation point felt “detached from the way a lot of us feel right now,” she said.
“This is not a comment on the company or their rights,” Hoechstetter explained in her own Facebook post, which she shared with the Gazette, “it’s the posting and celebration that feels cruel and devoid of decency.”
While Hoechstetter said she loves the fair and has gone to it nearly every year of her life, the post made her rethink whether she wants to bring her family there this year; she’s undecided.
And she’s not the only one.
On the Cummington Fair’s Facebook page, one person commented that she was concerned the fair was aligning itself with a gun store and criticized the original post for being insensitive given recent mass shootings.
Like Hoechstetter, Allison Arbib grew up going to the Cummington Fair; she now lives in Haydenville. She also acknowledged that people have the right to own and sell guns but said, “I felt that, in this moment, in this week when there’s a nationwide mourning for all the victims of violence … it was upsetting to see the Cummington Fair celebrate sponsorship of a company that sells guns.”
Though she usually attends the fair, Arbib said she won’t be going this year.
Albert Judd, president of the fair, said the post is part of a series of messages thanking over a dozen sponsors. Several days earlier, the fair thanked Greenfield Savings Bank in a similar message.
He added that the message about KC Small Arms was a pre-scheduled post. “It was poor timing,” he said. “It was not meant to be taken in light of recent events in the country.”
Others were supportive of the sponsorship. “It’s wonderful to hear of a legal local business supporting the event,” Debbie Turnquist, who has roots in both Cummington and Worthington, wrote in a Facebook post that she gave the Gazette permission to quote. “We’re looking forward to attending again this year.”
KC Small Arms will not have a booth at the fair, Judd added. The company declined to comment.
In Cummington on Wednesday, not everyone had heard about the post and sponsorship. “This is the first time I’m hearing about it,” said Antoinette Reed, a Cummington resident of 15 years, while sitting at a table in the Old Creamery Co-op. Reed sells her art, including jewelry and decorative wire trees, at a booth at the fair.
Asked what she thought about the gun store sponsoring the fair, she said, “I don’t know — obviously, they are already sponsors. I don’t know if there’s anything we can do to reverse it.”
“I certainly wouldn’t boycott,” she continued. “I wouldn’t say I’m not going to go.”
“I would love it if we got rid of all guns, just all of them,” Stephen Yoshen told the Gazette, as he was getting into his car in the parking lot of Cummington Supply.
The Cummington resident said he had “no particular feelings one way or the other” about the gun shop sponsoring the fair.
“The whole world of advertising and sponsorship feels a little crazy to me,” he said. Yoshen said he tries to tune all advertising out.
The 151st Cummington Fair runs Aug. 22–25.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.