Volume 2, No. 22. November 26, 2002
IAAPA Report
Lunch
money
No question, a visit
to the Give Kids The World Village is an inspiring thing. People come away willing
to do just about anything to help fund the village, support the foundation or
carry out the mission. Plant that fertile seed in the weird minds of British
roller coaster enthusiasts and you get things like the messiest coaster ride
on record.
The event was a re-creation of a stunt aired on British television in the 1980s
when a pack of Scouts ate their lunch on Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s Revolution
shuttle coaster. The European Coaster Club approached the park about doing the
stunt for GKTW, and the park jumped aboard.
The enthusiasts raised money through pledges, including one that club Chairman
Richard Foster nabbed that would collect a Sterling Pound for every individual
food item stuck to his shirt at the end of the ride. “I thought it was
quite an original pledge,” he said. That pledge accounted for 12 Pounds
(US$18) of the total 1,000 Pounds (US$1,600) raised by the event, which took
place last July. “We bought milk shakes and hamburgers and cream cakes;
everything messy,” Foster said. “We got on the ride and shouted ‘Give
kids the world’ and went upside down. It went everywhere. It was just a
mess.”
“It’s so unusual,” GKTW President Pamela Landwirth said after
receiving the check from the European Coaster Club during a ceremony at IAAPA.
The check also included 1,500 Pounds (US$2,400) raised through an auction. “To
want to do something for those that are facing some of life’s biggest challenges
and to have fun doing it and be so creative, it’s such a passion.”
Foster said the club plans to continue its fundraising efforts for GKTW next
year with a bigger auction and a repeat of the coaster-riding lunch stunt. “This
is a really nice tie-in with the club,” he said. “The charity is sending
kids around to theme parks. We’re obviously great fans of theme parks.
We get that feeling of escape from reality for a few hours of joy and pleasure
an awful lot, because that’s what we do as a hobby. For these kids, without
Give Kids The World they might not ever get that chance.”
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