Volume 2, No. 14. July 26, 2002
Eric's Turn
The
son kings
Many of you have
experienced it. You get an intern or summer employee who proves so valuable
you wish you could keep him or her from going back to school or back home at
the end of the season.
Well, I’ve had two. And to compound the feelings of loss I will be enduring
starting next week, my two interns/summer employees happen to be my sons, who
head back for their home in Alaska this weekend.
Jonathan, 15, and Ian, 13, have done more than accompany me on my travels to
various parks and zoos this summer (that’s them above testing out the new
Gator Tail at Chula Vista Resort in the Wisconsin Dells); they have been
an integral part of our operations and production of THE LOOP this summer.
Jon brought us up to date on our Connections page and completed a study of THE
LOOP’s coverage in the first two years, the results of which we’ll
publish in the next issue. He also overhauled our paper files and helped me
research stories for THE LOOP and Amusement Today.
Ian served as our operations manager and webmaster this summer. What you see
here is his work; he built and posted this and the previous three issues. Additionally,
he built all our new advertisements and the jump pages, with some direction
from Ad Manager Lynne Mosman (take a look at his work by clicking on the “Don’t
Hide!” ad).
Indulge me this opportunity to publicly thank my two assistants for their good,
hard and valuable work this summer. It has been a pleasure having you on board.
And to my sons I’d like to say, I’m very proud of you.
Joy
to the world
After posting an
equal dose of troubling news and hopeful news in Extra
Extra the past few weeks, yesterday I posted an item that pleased me much:
the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions and UNICEF
formalized an agreement to use the network of amusement parks and other IAAPA
members to help raise money for a UNICEF program. “Your Change for a Real
Change,” as the initiative is called, will support UNICEF’s global
immunization activities.
As we reported when the partnership was first broached (THE
LOOP, May 10, 2002), this was a pet project of IAAPA Chairman Alain Baldacci
from the moment he took over the association’s gavel (THE
LOOP, December 14, 2001), and we are strong proponents of the idea. We urge
all theme parks, waterparks, zoos, family entertainment centers and attractions
to get on board with this initiative, and we vow here that THE LOOP will assist
you in any way we can.
This industry is all about bringing smiles to children’s faces and moments
of happiness to their hearts. Here’s a chance to reach so much farther
with that mission than we ever have before.
©2002, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved