By DUNCAN ADAMS
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Archives Reprint

   An Angel greets callers to headquarters.

    Angel Jones of Roanoke forsook a contented retirement for a six-month paid position with the Southwest Virginia Festival 2003 with Franklin Graham. Jones is one of 10 locals hired directly by the Graham organization to help organize this weekend's gala of Christian evangelism. As receptionist at festival offices in the ETS International building near the Roanoke Regional Airport, Jones routinely shares her first name with callers: "Angel speaking, may I help you?" And they often react, she said.

    "One asked, 'Did I call heaven?'" recalled Jones, smiling.

    The festival's central command center isn't heaven, but organizers there have been raining greenback manna for months on valley businesses. And more precipitation will occur this weekend, as festival goers fill gas tanks, stomachs and motel beds, and browse shops and malls.

    A similar three-day Franklin Graham festival in August in Spokane, Wash., had an estimated total economic impact on the region of nearly $3 million, according to attendee spending estimates and other calculations cited by Nancy Goodspeed of the Spokane Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau.

    About 80,000 people attended the Spokane event over three days, she said.

    Sherman Barnette, an employee of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is director for the Southwest Virginia Festival, featuring Graham's 50-year-old son, Franklin.

    Barnette said he cannot predict attendance for this weekend's festival in Salem. But the Salem Football Stadium's seating capacity for the May 2-4 event will expand, with on-field seating, to more than 19,000. The festival also has booked the adjacent Salem Civic Center for overflow, where up to 6,000 more people can watch the doings on a huge screen. And Barnette said as many as 300 people from the Graham organization will have arrived this week to help stage the event.

    Admission is free. But Barnette said many people who come will spend money.

    "They are staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, shopping," he said. "It's a good shot in the arm for local business people."

    Experience has shown "it's not uncommon at all for folks to travel from a hundred-mile radius" for the festival, Barnette said.

    Dave Kjolhede , executive director of the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau, said a 1997 study by Virginia Tech and subsequent research and adjustments have yielded a daily spending estimate for out-of-town visitors to the Roanoke Valley. Spending by religious-event visitors staying overnight tends to fall between sports-related visitors, who spend less, and conventioneers, who typically spend the most. The religion-visitor amount averages $150 per day per person.

    Festival organizers have been spending, too.

    The festival's local budget started at $750,000 and grew to about $780,000 to cover costs associated with providing for overflow at the Salem Civic Center, Barnette said. But supplemental funding from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association - for advertising, booking of major musical acts and other costs - bumps spending to "well over $1 million," he said.

    Carey Harveycutter is Salem's director of civic facilities. The festival is renting Salem's football stadium and civic center. Harveycutter said facility rental fees, staffing, equipment and catering revenues, and other festival-related income should yield about $20,000 for the city of Salem. And stagehands, bus drivers, security staff and others hired for the event by the Graham organization also will benefit, he said.

    The festival has purchased advertising space from newspapers, radio and TV stations, and cable channels. And organizers have bought goods and services from other local businesses.

    Bill Jones owns a Fastsigns franchise, with stores in Roanoke and Salem. Fastsigns has produced banners and scores of signs for the Graham organization and worked about 100 extra hours to fill orders. Although he would not disclose specific dollar figures, Jones said festival-related work, which began in November and recently peaked, has provided local relief after tough economic times nationally for many businesses in 2002.

    "It's given us a boost for the first quarter and starting into the second quarter," he said.

    Dana Montgomery, an account executive for Source4 Integrated Business & Marketing Solutions , shared similar thoughts about fielding festival-related business. Montgomery said the orders for print jobs and promotional products such as T-shirts have been well-timed, considering the sluggish national economy and the typically slow months of winter.

    "It has brought a lot of revenue to our company, and it came at a very good time," said Montgomery, who, like Jones, would not name numbers.

    Barnette said festival staff opened their Roanoke office Oct. 1. Since then, five employees of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association have been in Roanoke "most of the time, with three or four others who kind of pop in from time to time." Jones and her local co-workers have supplemented the regular staff.

    Graham staff members have rented apartments for their Roanoke Valley stay, said Barnette. But the festival also has booked rooms in area hotels, including the Hotel Roanoke and Courtyard by Marriott, for event staff.

    Gary Walton, general manager of the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, said the hotel will realize about 600 room nights from the festival, as well as spinoff food and beverage revenues. "It's a wonderful piece of business for us," Walton said.

    Blaine Shively, general manager of the Hampton Inn near the Lewis-Gale Medical Center, said his hotel has been booked for months, partly because of the Roanoke College graduation this weekend but also because of the Graham festival. He said he's heard that a number of Salem motels are sold out for the weekend.

    "The impact to the valley is going to be extraordinary," he said.

    And, based on events during a festival last May in Texas, some local barbecue restaurants might feel the impact, too. Franklin Graham, a barbecue fan, cottoned to the cuisine at C&J Bar-B-Que in College Station. Graham was a regular during a four-day festival there and routinely touted the restaurant from the stage.

    "Last May was the biggest month in sales we ever had," owner Chip Manning said. "It was absolutely fabulous what he did for us."

    Harveycutter said the festival's anticipated boost to businesses is just part of the story. "While the economic impact is going to be large, I think the spiritual impact for the Roanoke Valley is going to be greater," he said.

    Jones offered similar thoughts, saying the pay she's received as receptionist cannot equal "the awesome experience" of being part of the festival. Jones' last day will be May 9. She said she'll return happily to retirement, grateful her pastor suggested the temporary job.

    "I think God placed me here," she said.

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