Conneaut Blue Streak wins $50K Pepsi donation

RatherGoodBear said:

Josh, you also agreed with the lameness, and commented that you couldn't see how someone could vote for a coaster over sick children.

And I still can't, but that's my personal feeling. I just don't get it.

Carrie and Josh, one of you said lame, the other agreed. Well I have just one more thing I'll say about this whole GKTW/BS issue...both were in the first contest and neither won, then only BS was in the next contest and it did happen to win.

ALL OF THAT doesn't matter because a bunch of you stepped forward and participated in (and many of us donated to) an event that raised nearly as much as a multi-million dollar corporation was going to give to the winning cause.

I think that makes GKTW a winning charity no matter what anyone else thinks. Lame?

Dude, if you would go back and READ my post you'll see...

Just kiddin'. :)

But actually I did not reference lame in any context except the passive aggressive way you got people to whine (as you put it) about Blue Streak winning.

And Blue Streak and GKTW were never in the same contest or even in different contests in the same month. GKTW was the first to participate in June. They went for $250K and didn't win. Blue Streak was then entered in July for the $50K category. It didn't win. Blue Streak was reentered for the $50K in August and that's when it won.

That's why I said they are irrelevant to each other.

We're bad people, and we don't care about roller coasters, Carrie. We're never going to win. I'm done trying to convince people that I have nothing against CLP, and I very much would like to see them succeed.

I'm not even going to continue, because those of us who have the same stance have made ourselves very clear, but people will take it how they want to take it.

Sorry Carrie, I misunderstood the contest. I really though they were going at the same time.

Josh, I was paying you a compliment but if you want to twist things so that I'm the bad guy here...whatever dude. Tired of your antagonistic tone.

Hey, sorry man - I guess I misinterpreted since so many others seem to take issue with the stance of not wanting to support CLP throwing money down the pit.

That, and I'm forced to stay awake all night for the 2nd night in a row at work, so I'm really tired and cranky.

RatherGoodBear said:
I'm not sure who decided or how GKTW became the designated charity that all coaster enthusiasts had to support.

No one decided it, but it is the charity that I've decided CoasterBuzz will emphasize the most, for personal and philosophical reasons, not the least of which is that it's very much a part of the amusement industry.

@ Josh

No worries man, do we have a handshake winky around here someplace?

...in fact, until recently the ONLY publicity I had ever seen for Give Kids The World was in the context of the amusement industry. It's always heavily promoted at IAAPA (one year the Drew Expo set up their Seattle Wheel and sold expensive rides, with proceeds scheduled to go to GKTW) and various companies within the industry always seem to be involved in some way with GKTW projects.

The lone exception is that Perkins Restaurants (which I understand is an in-house caterer at GKTW) has a display and donation box near the cash register. It just so happens that I ate at Perkins on Saturday night after spending the evening riding the Blue Streak at Conneaut Lake...so I guess it *all* connects!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Nicely done, Dave! Can we consider this closed (loop) now? :)

Leave it to Dave to finish on a high note :)

Let me add real quick to what Dave said about awareness of GKTW. Back in the '90s, I worked for Kmart and their big charity for years was GKTW. We would sell paper castles for $1.00 each during a certain period of the year and decorate the front of the store with them. Don't really know what happened, but one year, Kmart just stopped giving to this cause. That's how I became aware of GKTW. Hadn't heard of the charity again until hearing it here.

I imagine that bankruptcy tends to have a chilling effect on corporate charitable contributions...

(Did a bankrupt K-Mart buy a bankrupt Sears, or was it the other way around? And if they're both bankrupt, how in the heck did that happen?)

Something I observed at Conneaut Lake over the weekend (I was there for the ACE ERT on Saturday and returned on Sunday early afternoon)...

They didn't seem to have any trouble selling tickets for the coaster. Before ERT, the trains were running probably 60% full or better. During ERT they were pretty much completely full, but that was a flat $20 POP (and I don't know how much of the $20 goes to the coaster). The way the ride was running, at $3/ride they were easily bringing in $500-$1000 per hour. The thermometer on the front of the station indicated that without the Pepsi money they had already raised about $30k. The fundraising target is $100k. That means they're only $80k short. That's conservatively about 160 hours of coaster operation. That's 20 days. I don't think they can do that in the remainder of this season (I think they only have about twelve days left) but given only weekends and opening on MDW they could reach their goal by the end of June. If they can get bigger crowds in and keep the train full, they can do even better. Suddenly this apparent gamble to go ahead and get the ride running is looking like it just might work. And the Pepsi money really is nothing more than a way to make it happen *faster*.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Dave, Kmart ended its deal with GKTW long before bankruptcy. And just so everyone knows, the financial woes of Kmart were NOT MY FAULT.

Oh, and Kmart bought Sears, again, not my fault.

Soo...... did anyone get a chance to ride the Blue Streak this past long weekend? I heard some great reports :)

I rode it but my honest observations of the ride probably wouldn't go over well so I'll just say it was nice riding Blue Streak again but it still needs a lot of work.

Nah, tell us what you think. It couldn't be worse than those of us saying it has no long-term future. :)

I think the reason K-Mart stopped was because they moved to another charity (if I remember from my stint working there many years ago).

I was aware of the charity named GKTW, but I didn't know what all they did, and Kara has put a face to the charity by posting the pictures on here.

I'm glad Blue Streak is up and running, and I wish the park well.

I'm glad plenty of coaster dorks/geeks/nerds decided to contribute to a worthy cause like GKTW.

If you really want to see about priorities, go to another coaster site where the webmaster complained ad nauseum about how not enough enthusiasts showed up for Blue Streak's reopening. 'Donating' to charities for park perks that you can use on your trips doesn't equal donating to charities because you feel its a worthy cause ;).

I was recently somewhere non-coaster related and noticed that their charity du-jour was GKTW. I think it may have been a restaurant, but it wasn't Perkins.

(Glad I could help.)

Jeff said:
Nah, tell us what you think. It couldn't be worse than those of us saying it has no long-term future. :)

LOL Jeff. Let's just say that if anyone tries to say it was smooth and fast throughout the entire ride, they're either lying or a masochist. I will say the front of the train wasn't as bad as the back.