Sprankles Family Feud run comes to a close
One day after dozens of Saxonburg residents came out to watch the Sprankle family — owners of Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market — win on the game show Family Feud, many of them returned to the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company grounds to see if they could pull it off again.
On the episode aired Thursday night, April 25, it was not to be, as the Sprankles lost to the Maye family from Alabama.
Still, for the five Sprankle contestants — Doug, Colt, Ryan, Brandi and Randy — this doesn’t take away from the experience.
“I’ll put it this way. 100 people were polled ... a word that starts with the letter H ... ’humbled,’” Doug said after the show concluded, referencing a question that came up during the show. “The fact that you guys come out for the events means everything.”
The Sprankles tied the second Family Feud watch party into their annual Campground for Community, a combination of a community event and Facebook livestream which featured various nonprofit leaders from all over Western Pennsylvania.
Among the community organizations and representatives featured on the livestream were the Saxonburg Museum, the Leechburg Rotary Club, the Leechburg Area Community Association, the Butler County Farm Bureau, and state Rep. Marci Mustello.
“Our core value is to promote the community and allow people to get a microphone to talk about their group, their nonprofit, and what they do for the community,” Doug said.
He added that the stream generally picks up 10 to 50 simultaneous viewers when it’s on the air, with each segment picking up 3,000 to 4,000 views when posted separately later on.
Throughout both days of the watch party events, the Sprankles took donations for the Salvation Army food pantries in Saxonburg, Kittanning and Leechburg — all towns which feature a Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market. Donations were accepted at the fire company and at all three Sprankle’s locations.
The amount of donations has yet to be counted. However, according to Marlin Boltz, chairman of the Salvation Army’s Saxonburg Service Unit, last year’s Campground for Community netted $20,000 in donations, which were split evenly among the three pantries.
As for the second Family Feud, Colt expressed some regret over how it ended. The decisive moment came when a member of the Maye family beat Colt, a high school quarterback, to the buzzer and guessed correctly, allowing them to advance to the Fast Money round.
“I want to see the replay in slow motion,” Colt said, laughing. “I hit it before him! I should’ve looked back at Coach Randy and said, ‘Toss the (challenge) flag, Coach.’”
Still, the Sprankles won $20,000 on their first night on the show. Doug said they have plans for how to spend their windfall.
“My and Ryan’s portion of that is going to our friends at the Salvation Army,” Doug said. “And we’re hoping to have a nice family vacation next year.”
