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Show jgt 2 WMm- .Sttipnlke.ai.enffli JJ0fH by Teri Gomes A requiem for skating in P.C.? There are few things that cut quicker to the hearts of parents than someone hurting their child. And as a parent, when you find yourself powerless to soothe the child and mend the hurt, it is a sickening, helpless feeling. feel-ing. , ' One of the things we pride ourselves on here and, in fact, it was even included in our All-America Cities presentation is that an individual can make a difference. dif-ference. But, this past week, a number of individuals tried to make a difference and apparently failed. A number of parents tried to deal rationally with a company com-pany made up of individuals who have children of their own, tried rationally to avoid seeing their own children get hurt. But it didn't work. Last Saturday night, dozens of young skaters crowded into the Skater's Center at The Resort Center to give tearful goodbyes to the family they had grown to think of as The Rink Family: the Bakers. For two years, large numbers of Park City school-aged children and adults have taken ice skating lessons from various members of the nine-person troupe. The family, which has performed perform-ed with the Ice Capades and other national ice shows, brought a professional quality to the sport here. We have come to expect professionalism in our small town. We demand it of our city officials and our school officials and we demand it of one another in our business dealings. As a parent, I was delighted the Baker family demanded demand-ed a professional attitude from my daughter. In the past two years, Jenny has become if I might brag a bit here a terrific skater. Mrs. Baker had begun talking about Jenny's future on the ice in a professional way. Jenny gave up skiing two years ago. She lives for that rink. She's 12 years old and I can think of few places I'd rather see her "hang out" in her spare time. At the rink, she was expected to behave if she was to be allowed on the ice or in the skate house. She was expected to be courteous to other skaters and to give nothing less than her best. As we all are acutely aware, this is the Christmas season. For many parents, our gifts are being planned around our children's favorite sport. My mother on the West Coast has spent endless hours looking for a special item for my daughter's skating. Many parents told me they plan to buy new skates to put under the tree. New skates to learn on to learn from professional teachers. What happened this past week is that Prudential Development Co. terminated the Bakers' management contract to run the rink. Instead of simply letting their Nov. 30 contract run out and not be renewed, they went to the Bakers' home fh the middle of the night and taped a termination notice to their door. Then they changed all the locks at the skate house and cut off the power and the phone. They took the distributor cap from the Zamboni ice-clearing machine and they refused to comment to the press or the public on their actions. Petitions from shopkeepers at The Resort Center in support of the Bakers were delivered to officials of the company but were met with silence. Press inquiries were met with silence or terse, one-sentence statements that told nothing. My daughter and many of her friends are devastated this week. Besides losing their friends, they have lost hope. And as a parent, I feel helpless, but I'm also incredibly in-credibly angry. Who Prudential hires and fires to run their various business interests certainly should not be a popularity contest that the entire community has a vote in I would agree with that. But to take away, at the holidays, hope for hundreds of aspiring young skaters is insensitive and the kind of behavior I have come to expect from Prudential, Pruden-tial, i - In their silence, which I understand may have come at the advice of their attorneys, they have managed to leave children with little hope that any kind of professional profes-sional skating program will continue at the rink. These kids don't want to just make turns around the ice, they want to learn, they want to get better, they want to do their best. And I, as a parent, want to feel my child is in a1 wholesome learning atmosphere. Prudential doesn't have an obligation to provide skating lessons for my daughter. Their obligation is to keep the rink open. But it strikes a vein with me that they, as the biggest single developer in town, have an unwritten un-written obligation to try to become a part of the community. com-munity. If they continue to make insensitive, unilateral deci- sions whether to move the transit center to a dangerous, inconvenient location or eliminate a service, i.e. professional lessons for skaters they can rest assured the very next time any approval of theirs is up before a group of public officials, the public will make its voice heard. The only condolence I could. give my daughter this week was something an elderly black man once told me in an airport waiting room: "What goes around, comes around, honey." You better believe it, Prudential. |