Volume 3, No. 8. April 25, 2003
Making Saturday
night alright
Of all the parks
in North America, one of the least likely you would expect to see a riot is
Lake Winnepesaukah in Rossville, Georgia, just over the state border from Chattanooga,
Tennessee. The park exudes wholesome family fun, and its operations are as genteel
as you please; that made the “Riot at Lake Winnepesaukah” headlines
all the more jarring,
“A bit of a ruckus is a more accurate way to put it,” Talley Rhodes,
Lake Winnie’s public relations director, said of the altercation last Saturday
that ended with officers from nine different Georgia and Tennessee law enforcement
agencies responding. Press reports about the incident ranged from a rumor of
a stabbing that prompted the park to close early to a fight involving 50 to
100 youths causing a rush of patrons for the exit to a gathering of up to 700
youths who battled each other and police in the parking lot after the park closed
90 minutes early.
“We had some unsupervised youngsters acting as unsupervised youngsters
have a tendency to do,” was the only explanation Rhodes would give. “We
decided to close the park early for the benefit of the families that were in
the park, because these unsupervised youngsters were interrupting their fun.”
None of these youths were threatening the families, she said, but they were
engaging in ruckus-like behavior, i.e. fighting. “There were no serious
injuries,” she said.
Rhodes is doing more than choosing her words carefully for public relations
purposes. She is pinpointing a trend that was beginning to seriously alter the
atmosphere at this 78-year-old family amusement park. With a $3 admission fee
to the pay-as-you-go park, many parents were dropping their teen-age children
off and letting them spend the day and evening unsupervised. With no money to
buy ride tickets, the kids milled about aimlessly, trouble looking for itself
to happen. The altercation with police in the parking lot after the park’s
early closing generally involved teens with no immediate transportation home,
according to news reports.
Within three days Lake Winnie had instituted new policies aimed at removing
the “unsupervised activity,” Rhodes said.
— All guests under age 21 must be accompanied by a parent or adult chaperon
age 21 years or older, or they must be a member of a chaperoned group pre-registered
with the park and sponsored by a church, school, camp, club or business;
— All guests under age 21 will be required to purchase either a combination
$3 gate admission and value strip of 14 ride tickets for $9.50, or a combination
$3 gate admission and unlimited-ride arm band for $18;
— The $3 gate admission by itself will be available only to persons over
age 21.
Lake Winnie has begun a public education campaign to head off any further ruckus
that might arise this weekend over the new policies. They will be announced
in the park’s weekly Chattanooga Free Press advertisement today,
they will be posted prominently at entry gates and the parking lot, and flyers
will be distributed to all patrons entering the park, Rhodes said.
It’s a bold move done on the sudden, but park management is not concerned
with consequences, only the end result. “Lake Winnepesaukah has enjoyed
a reputation as a place for family fun for 78 years,” Rhodes said. “We’re
not a teen park and we’re not a theme park and we’re not a rock ‘n’
roll park. We’re a family amusement park, and maintaining that tradition
is at the forefront of what we do. As the public becomes educated on our new
policy, the policy reinforces our objectives of family fun. That’s what
it’s designed for and that’s what Lake Winnepesaukah is all about.”
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
©2003, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved
