Sprankle’s Kittanning gets once-in-a-lifetime visit from former president
For at least the third time, Kittanning was the site of a presidential campaign stop, when former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump visited Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market on Monday, Sept 23.
“It was a special night for us and our family and obviously some of the employees who were there,” said Ryan Sprankle, the owner of the Kittanning location of the family-owned, independent grocery store.
According to Sprankle, while the visit had been in the works for days, it wasn’t until the day before the visit that the Trump campaign informed them Trump was coming to their store, and even then, it wasn’t a done deal.
“I actually didn’t know it was going to be finalized until yesterday,” Sprankle said on Monday evening. “Yesterday morning is when I knew it was going to happen, and even then, they said that there could be some variables that it might not happen. But they were planning for it to happen.”
Sprankle said only a select few people outside the campaign had any knowledge of Trump’s pending visit to the store, and that they were instructed to keep quiet for security reasons.
“We, the employees, were told on Sunday. I was notified on Sunday,” said Brianna Lookhart, assistant store manager of the Kittanning location. “We were supposed to keep it very low-key.”
“We were told not to tell anybody,” Sprankle said. “We didn’t tell any of our usual friends ... because we were told not to. They just said that President Trump was interested in stopping at our store. So we made preparations for that, and they just asked us to keep it under tight wraps.”
Despite this, on the day of Trump’s visit, some Kittanning residents must have caught on to the situation, because a crowd gathered outside Sprankle’s by the time Trump arrived.
“I believe that it was speculation at first, and then they saw our parking lot and everything taped off,” Lookhart said. “There were people outside the store showing support, and not showing support, about an hour before he arrived.”
Lookhart said she was initially intimidated by the security presence surrounding Trump, which included a Secret Service counter-sniper perched near a bus outside the store.
“It was very intimidating, but at the same time, very exciting,” Lookhart said. “I knew we were safe.”
According to Lookhart, Trump was flanked by an entourage of 15 to 20 people, which mostly included members of the national media.
“There were people with cameras ... there were people doing interviews with their phones,” Lookhart said.
Lookhart said Trump was asked about the possibility of another debate with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, although she didn’t hear Trump’s answer to that question.
Sprankle’s was closed for the former president’s visit, which was deemed a private event. Despite this, there were several customers present who were pre-selected by the Sprankles to be in the store for Trump’s visit.
“It was some of our customers and friends and family that they were able to get pretty quick background clearances on,” Sprankle said.
Trump paid $600 out of his pocket to cover the cost of groceries for the customers, with two members of Trump’s campaign team covering the remainder of the costs.
“He gave a mother $100. She was shopping with her three sons and her husband,” Lookhart said. “And then $500 out of his pocket went toward all the groceries of the selected customers.”
While Lookhart never got to speak with the former president, she did stand next to him as she checked out the mother’s groceries.
Describing Trump, she said, “It was like confidence walked in the door. He’s full of confidence.”
The visit to Kittanning was part of a whirlwind tour of Western Pennsylvania, concluding with a campaign rally at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which drew a packed house to the university’s 5,000-seat Ed Fry Arena.
Before Trump’s visit, Kittanning had previously been visited by John F. Kennedy, as part of his presidential campaign in 1960, and then by former President Bill Clinton, who was campaigning on behalf of his wife, Hillary, as part of her unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2008.
