Nazareth Residents Partner With Sonic Restaurants to Benefit Fire Victims

Nazareth Residents Partner With Sonic Restaurants to Benefit Fire Victims

Nazareth, PA – July 12, 2011 – Nazareth residents are teaming up with the Nazareth Sonic restaurant and a dozen local businesses to raise money for the Weisenberger family, who lost their home to fire yesterday. Donation containers have been distributed at businesses around the Nazareth community and Sonic has agreed to donate 10% of their sales from the Nazareth restaurant on Thursday, July 13. 100% of all money collected will go directly to the family.

Donations can be made at the following participating locations- Action Karate in Lower Nazareth, Copier Ink Café, Darios Pizza, D&R Beverage, KNBT Bank (Nazareth branch on Broad Street), Mivajo’s Pizza, Nazareth Library, Pizza Joe’s, Ressler’s Market and Sonic of Nazareth. In addition, CVS of Nazareth has agreed to donate a basket of household products to the family.


On Monday, July 11th at about 3pm, Nazareth resident Charles Weisenberger had just finished mowing his lawn and returned the lawnmower to his garage. It was at that point, the lawn mower unexpectedly caught fire, which quickly spread throughout his garage and then his house, engulfing both in flames. By the time the fire was extinguished, the Weisenberger family had lost their garage, two vehicles and their house. A lifetime of memories and personal property was gone.

In a small town like Nazareth, word quickly spread of the loss. Within a few hours, friends and neighbors of the Weisenberger family were pledging their support to help, including lifelong Nazareth residents Paul Klotz III and Bruce Orwig, who own a chain of Sonic restaurants. As local residents worked together to come up with a plan of action, ten businesses agreed to collect donations and Klotz raised the ante by agreeing to donate a portion of the Nazareth restaurant’s sales.

One local resident who is helping coordinate donations with the Nazareth businesses explained the effort by saying, “This isn’t about any one of us individually, it’s about a community coming together to help our neighbor through a tough time. We understand our contributions won’t bring back the things that were lost, but we want the Weisenberger family to know that Nazareth is full of people who care and want to help.”