Volume 1, No. 23. December 14, 2001
Relief fun
Humans
have two basic needs: food and shelter. The species had advanced enough by the
20th century that sociologists added a third: love.
Alain Baldacci contends 21st century humans have another basic need: fun. "Most
of the visitors to our parks are children," said the president of Interplay
Parks in Sao Paulo, Brazil. "We make them happier and make families happier,
and we profit from them. But poor children cannot access our parks."
In an interview for Amusement Today, Baldacci, IAAPA's new Chairman of the Board
of Directors, laid out his goals for his coming one-year term, which began when
he took the gavel from Billy Sims at November's IAAPA Convention and Trade Show.
The overall tenor of these goals is to increase IAAPA's influence on legislation
and in the tourism industry, plus better utilizing the members' general expertise.
His most ambitious goal, and most profound, is to spread fun to the world's
poor and displaced.
"I come from a country where, unfortunately, we have a large portion of our
children that can't come to our parks, and we don't do anything for them," Baldacci
said. "We should be able to raise this as a social responsibility." In other
words, while other organizations raise funds to send food and shelter to impoverished
populations, IAAPA could lead the effort to somehow send those populations fun.
Baldacci is still grappling with how, except to say that IAAPA should link up
with a worldwide organization that already has a distribution network in place.
But he plans to unabashedly champion the notion that laughter is as great a
comforter to children as food, clothing and housing. "This will be one thing
I will fight for," he said. Even if IAAPA can't send rides and games to impoverished
nations, the association could at least support existing life-saving efforts.
Furthermore,
the association already has a model of providing fun to children in need through
its support of Give Kids The World. "We can reach out to not only terminally
ill children but others who will die if they don't get help," he said. "They
say that 25 cents of a (U.S.) dollar can save a child in Brazil and India. Can
you imagine how many lives IAAPA can try to save that hopefully one day can
cross our gates as guests? We are an association in 102 countries with 5,700
members. We have enormous potential."
To achieve this goal Baldacci said IAAPA will have to become more socially conscious.
"The association has never spoken to our social responsibility. We help our
members to perform their business, financially and operationally, but the social
responsibility aspect has never been inserted in the program." This is a change
necessitated not by the moral conscience of a new chairman but by the nature
of consumer businesses in this new century.
"IBM,
Volvo, all of the big corporations have implemented social programs on the idea
that where you get your money from, you give a little back, not only in taxes
but social involvement," Baldacci said. IAAPA members get their money from people,
namely families and kids, having fun. "If we were able to bring attention to
our members that we should be socially responsible, that would be a great thing
for our industry. IAAPA would gain a human dimension. That's the way businesses
will be run in the 21st century."
Photo
of Baldacci and his fellow countryman, football great Pele, who attended the
gavel-passing ceremony. Photo
courtesy of Alain Baldacci
For the complete profile of Alain Baldacci and his goals for IAAPA in 2002,
see the January issue of Amusement Today. To subscribe to Amusement Today, click
here.