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KATRINA RESCUERS TO NATION: SEND CIGARS!

KATRINA RESCUERS TO NATION: SEND CIGARS!

Plus: RTDA offers financial assistance to hurricane-devastated members

Los Angeles, September 8 – In today’s anti-smoking environment, every once in a while there’s a story that reminds you that people still enjoy tobacco.

Greg Dumas of the LaFourche(Louisiana) Parish Sheriff’s Office (Craig Webre, sheriff) contacted the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America (RTDA), asking for donations of tobacco products (including cigars) for the enjoyment of the relief workers staged there.

Because of its geography, Lafourche Parish – located southeast of New Orleans – was not bruised as badly as New Orleans to its west and Biloxi, Mississippi to the east by Hurricane Katrina and has become an important staging area for disaster relief workers.

The RTDA’s Legislative Director, Chris McCalla, wrote: “Dumas explained that relief workers, ranging from utility crews, National Guardsmen, search and rescue units, paramedics, firefighters and others have selflessly left their homes in other states to offer assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Many of these relief workers enjoy tobacco products but are faced with a severe shortage of tobacco products in the region.”

No kidding. And you can help!

In addition to donations by cigar manufacturers, distributors and smokeshops, you can send a box or two of cigars, or some matches or cutters or other tobacco products to the relief teams, to:

Mr. Greg Dumas
LaFourche Parish Sheriff’s Office
805 Crescent Avenue
Lockport, Louisiana 70374

All such donations will be distributed by the State Sheriff’s Association, using the state relief agency’s staging area in the Parish area.

RTDA offering financial help to Katrina-area tobacco merchants:
In addition, the RTDA is making available financial assistance to members in the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana areas affected by the hurricane.

Members can obtain loans of up to $5,000 with no interest for one year to cover any and all basic expenses, especially while banks and other financial institutions may not be reachable.

Interested members should call the RTDA at (410) 628-1674 right away to discuss how such arrangements can be made.

Light at great heights:
Following up on yesterday’s story on equipment for the road warrior, it’s worthwhile to note that travelers who use lighters should always consider where they’re going before packing that torch.

At higher altitudes such as in Denver or Colorado Springs, Colorado, some lighters – especially torch lighters – will simply not work. The air is just too thin and prevents ignition. What can you do?

If you’re a Colibri fan, you can probably find a Quantum Xtreme somewhere, with its ingenious altitude adjustment ring (!) that adjusts the air-fuel mixture so that the lighter will work at up to 10,000 feet. It’s not made any more.

Without an Xtreme, your best bet are some nice long cigar matches or your old friend, the flint-strike lighter. These will work; forewarned is forearmed.

Boquilla Cigars: last store standing?
Bonnie Pfister of The Associated Press made a big impact with her story about a very small cigar shop in Union City, New Jersey last week, making its way into dozens of newspapers across the country.

Her story on Boquilla Cigars put the spotlight on the last of the small cigar manufacturers so common to the Union City area, famous for its heavy concentration of Cuban expatriates. Jose Suarez started making cigars in his native Cuba at age 11, but he is now 72 years old.

He told Pfister, “I’m fighting, trying to maintain my business. But if things continue as they have, I might have to close, too.”

Literally a neighborhood business, Boquilla’s customer base is disappearing as the area changes. Where up to 80 percent of Union City’s population was of Cuban origin around 1980, it’s only about 30 percent now.

“It stopped being economical to hand-roll cigars in this country decades ago,” noted Cigar Association of America president Norm Sharp. The lower wages and duty-free tax zones of the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua have shifted almost all handmade production out of the U.S. At the same time, low-priced machine-made cigars now make up more than 90 percent of all cigars sold in the U.S. and are primarily made in Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico.

Suarez soldiers on, making about 150 cigars a day under the brand names “Boquilla” and “Havana,” both available in 11 traditional Cuban sizes, including 7-inch by 44-ring Fuma and the well-known Robusto (5 x 50). With the Cigar Boom of the 1990s, he’s given in a little bit, putting bands on his cigars now.

Forget about web sites or even mail order, though. If you find yourself in Union City, you can drop by at 2909 Bergenline Avenue, or call (201) 867-8260 . . . but be ready with your best Spanish. Ask for a Torpedo (6 x 54) before the store recedes into memory, like its brethren before it. Both you and Suarez will feel better for it.
~ Rich Perelman

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