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By LIZZIE BOWEN | Staff Reports

PELHAM– Ethan and Jennifer Brackner are both co-owners of the Pelham located card playing shop Card Addicts, working to reach out to students and children of the Shelby County area.

Ethan said Card Addicts is involved with the community in Pelham.

“We sponsor the Pelham band, this is the second year we have done that. When the Pelham Color Fun Run is done, we sponsor that as well. We have sponsored the Pelham basketball team,” Ethan said. “We try to be involved in the Pelham community.”

The couple came into ownership of the facility in 2017 and have celebrated five years in business.

“We bought the store fairly in its infancy still, and we have owned it for five-and-a-half years now since March 2017,” Ethan said.

Ethan said he is content with the Shelby County area’s response to the store as well as the growth he has seen.

The age demographic of customers attending Card Addicts is wide and varies.

“We have moms come in with their kids anywhere from (ages) five to thirteen,” Ethan said. “But we also have a lot of regulars who are here three or five days a week anywhere form young twenties to late thirties.”

Card playing tournaments are held at the store throughout the week.

Ethan said this dream to own his own business has been a long time in the making.

“Ever since I’ve been in high school, I have wanted to own my own business. It has always been a goal of mine,” Ethan said.

“Honestly ever single year we have owned the store it has done better than the last year,” Ethan said. “We started with one employee that we adopted from the previous Owner, and now we have 11 employees, so we have grown quite a bit.”

Ethan said online ordering of products has been good for the store and that the store originally began doing many online orders throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We really pushed it and learned a lot because of COVID,” Ethan said.

Ethan said Card Addicts is involved with the community in Pelham.

“We sponsor the Pelham band, this is the second year we have done that. When the Pelham Color Fun Run is done, we sponsor that as well. We have sponsored the Pelham basketball team,” Ethan said. “We try to be involved in the Pelham community.”

In addition to running Card Addicts, Ethan’s wife Jennifer Brackner owns the Pelham local snow cone truck Summer Snow.

Ethan said mobility is good for business in the area when it comes to Summer Snow.

“Right now, we don’t sit in any specific location. We do birthdays, parties, baby showers, two or three daycares,” Ethan said. “We thought sitting in one location would be good, but mobility helps. We have done events for a lot of local businesses and places. We have done events with Pelham Elementary and Pelham High school. We have done fundraiser events with the Police Department before.”

The truck is usually open from March to September, but still available for special events.

“With it being a snow cone business, it’s not open 12 months a year. It is Alabama so there’s a lot of hot weather, but usually March to September, maybe October depending on the weather,” Ethan said.

Card Addicts is located on 2015 Valleydale Road, Pelham AL. 35244 and can be found at facebook.com/Cardaddicts. Summer Snow can be found at facebook.com/Summersnowpelham.