originally posted on 5/1/2020
Photo: Courtesy Six Flags America. View full-sized image.
“In the amusement industry, we deal with risk every day, whether it is rides, terrorism, tornadoes … but none of us — no one — could have seen all our parks shut down at the same time,” Silver Dollar City’s (Branson, Missouri) Brad Thomas said in a conversation with me. But being a man of optimism, he stayed strong in hopes that people would be allowed to return even if the world doesn’t know when that is currently.
Like every business in America, or more accurately, the world, parks are finding their way through the COVID-19 crisis. In a time of uncertainty about when it will possibly end, the common philosophies of “We will get through this” and “We’re all in this together” have taken root. In such uncharted waters, figuring out how to get through the current events is daunting. But the amusement industry knows the first step is taking care of people.
In this time of temporary closure, numerous examples of parks stepping up to meet the needs of communities have been encouraging.
Aid with Food
One of the quickest responses was providing food.
Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, California) posted on its Facebook page during the first week of the pandemic how the park was loading up food to donate to the Santa Clarita Grocery to help community families.
Upon the closure of its resorts on both coasts, Walt Disney World (Lake Buena Vista, Florida) and Disneyland (Anaheim, California) donated food it had ordered to accommodate resort guests to Second Harvest Food Banks of Central Florida and Orange County.
The SeaWorld parks, including Busch Gardens, also donated food as the crisis emerged. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (Florida) provided 5,500 pounds of food to Feeding Tampa Bay.
Six Flags Over Georgia made a food donation to The Center for Children & Young Adults.
Photo: Courtesy Six Flags Over Georgia. View full-sized image.
Six Flags Over Georgia (Austell) donated 1,600 pounds of fresh produce and milk to The Center for Children & Young Adults in March, just as the park was gearing up to kick off its season. Likewise, Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington) made a donation to Mission Arlington of more than 3,500 pounds of food including fresh produce, hamburger patties, cheese and fun treats like marshmallows and cotton candy.
Other approaches were offered to help out in the situation. The Great Escape Lodge & Indoor Waterpark (Queensbury, New York) offered the use of refrigerators and freezers to keep additional food fresh for the local Washington County Office for the Aging.
Supplying Personal Protection Equipment
Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee) provided the Sevier County Food Ministries with a check for more than $16,000 to help shore up the nonprofit’s supplies just as it began facing unprecedented demand. Now, two of Dollywood’s hard-working teams have found additional ways to provide crucial items to two important groups.
Dollywood's wardrobe and costume shop teams began producing reusable face masks to give to patients, nurses and doctors at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. Members of both teams have asked to continue making the masks from home, so company officials provided supplies currently on hand to allow the teams to produce additional masks.
Dollywood’s safety team provided 200 ponchos to the Sevier County Emergency Management Agency, Pigeon Forge Fire Department and the Sevier County Ambulance Service. Owing to the ongoing medical supply shortage, the groups are in dire need of gowns that typically are used to protect first responders from bodily fluids that may be present when they are needed to perform life-saving measures. When hearing of the need, the park’s safety and merchandise teams knew the stock of Dollywood’s souvenir ponchos on hand could be used to meet the need.
Six Flags America (Upper Marlboro, Maryland) recognized how area hospitals were being affected by a shortage of medical supplies. In response, the park donated 1,440 plastic ponchos to Doctors Community Hospital in Prince Georges County. After it was graciously accepted, the park doubled its efforts with 1,400 more.
The Great Escape donated 900 surgical masks to Glens Falls Hospital.
Six Flags Great America (Gurnee, Illinois) donated approximately 14,000 pieces of potential personal protection equipment, which included N95 masks, gloves, gowns, head coverings, facemasks and park ponchos. The supplies were donated to Highland Park, Oak Park and Rock Island.
Europa-Park donated across the border to hard-hit France.
Photo: Courtesy Europa-Park. View full-sized image.
Such donations are not confined to the United States either. Germany’s Europa-Park (Rust) borders France and park officials have made an enormous donation of 25,000 ponchos across country borders to one of the main epicenters in France.
And even more …
And … just to show how unprecedented the times are that the world is navigating through, Six Flags Fiesta Texas (San Antonio) has donated 70 cases of jumbo rolls of toilet paper to Children’s Hospital of San Antonio.
An unusual — but helpful! — donation of toilet paper from Six Flags Fiesta Texas is indicative of these unprecedented times.
Photo: Courtesy Six Flags Fiesta Texas. View full-sized image.
Some parks are providing educational content for students who must now study from home. SeaWorld has created Education Toolbox, and all of its parks are providing content on its animals. Idlewild and Kings Dominion have provided coloring pages to engage younger children. Quassy Amusement Park has added new quizzes and puzzles to its downloadable “It’s Elementary” program.
These are just some of the examples ACE is aware of. The industry undoubtedly is enduring a crushing financial impact during these times, but it is encouraging to know that not only are parks saying, “We will get through this together,” but their hearts and actions demonstrate it.
— Compiled by ACE Editor Tim Baldwin from reports provided by ACE’s officers, regional representatives and members
Coloring pages such as this example from Idlewild & SoakZone are ways parks are offering at-home activities or educational content.
Photo: Courtesy Idlewild & SoakZone. View full-sized image.
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