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Volume 2, No. 8. May 10, 2002

Give the world kids
In the week after ascending to IAAPA’s chairmanship last November, Alain Baldacci revealed that one of his goals was to position the association as an organization that could somehow facilitate social change for impoverished children around the world (THE LOOP, December 14, 2001). Now he and, thanks to approval of the association’s board of directors, IAAPA have a partner in the effort: UNICEF.

IAAPA and the United Nations Children’s Fund are ironing out details on a campaign that would allow parks and zoos individually to help raise funds and awareness of UNICEF’s mission. “It’s going to be a voluntary program, and it’s very flexible to meet the means and size of your park,” Baldacci said.

Henry Mui, account manager of corporate partnerships and alliances at UNICEF, has high hopes for the IAAPA iniative. “Being that the parks cater to families and children and we have our own mission to save children’s lives and build their futures, it just made sense to see if we could work together on a global level,” Mui said. UNICEF focuses on five main themes: HIV and AIDS prevention, immunization for diseases, water and sanitation, education, and early childhood development, including building for children “the right to play, to have fun,” Mui said.

Mui currently is working on which UNICEF mission would meld best with that of IAAPA’s and then work on a mechanism to generate funds. “We still have quite a bit of work to do, but we’re excited about the opportunities,” he said. He also pointed to one of UNICEF’s most time-honored traditions, “trick-or-treat for UNICEF” at Halloween. “Usually, that the first time a child gets involved in social responsibility,” he said. “It’s the idea of a child helping another child around the world.”

Baldacci was inspired by a more recent UNICEF fundraising program, “Change for good,” a partnership with international airlines who collect passengers’ spare change left over after exchanging currency. The chairman is cognizant that any program IAAPA endorses needs to be flexible for the wide variety of sizes and types of its member facilities, and it also needs to have minimal impact on operations. The program will also be entirely voluntary. “We believe it is going to start very mall, but if you start adding small participation from here and from there and from other countries, when you put all this together in a few years we will become a very important partner of UNICEF. That’s my hope.”

He has encountered opposition, especially from park owners focusing more on operational aspects than conceptual. However, he noted that IAAPA’s role in Give Kids The World also started out small and conceptual. Baldacci sees the UNICEF program working hand in-hand with Give Kids The World. “In one program we are trying to give terminally ill children a last moment of happiness with their families. That’s a very beautiful program. UNICEF is trying to save the lives of children who don’t have enough food, who suffer from violence of different forms, who never will be able to become a good adult.” If IAAPA can help those children become good adults, he theorized, they could become customers at amusement parks. Mui himself said one of UNICEF’s goals is “building up societies.”

Good societies include fun times. “We’ve seen a lot of children in dire situations, especially in war-torn countries,” Mui said. “They are in a situation where they are going to die. Anything we can do to give a child a chance to smile, it’s a glimmer of hope, a reason to keep alive.”