Today was pretty uneventful until the end of the day. A woman came down to get her son from the gym. I knew something was wrong when she had her son go to the front desk and get an ice pack. When I approached the woman I asked what was wrong and she mentioned that she hurt her ankle on the fitness floor. She was having a lot of trouble standing so I told her to sit down. I grabbed a first aid kit and wrapped the ice pack onto her ankle. I talked with her for a bit and filled out an incident report. After about 15 minutes, she tried to stand and had a lot of trouble so I called for a wheelchair to be brought for her. We wheeled her out of the building but I think that she decided to drive home. While I do not think that is a good idea, once someone leaves the building it is out of my control. I just hope that she got home okay.
This post is probably not needed but since not much happened today, I am going to rant.
First off, the vending machines drive me crazy. One of my least favorite calls is when someone has something stuck in the vending machine. The Gemini does not own the vending machines so when something gets stuck, I cannot just open it up and grab it for someone or reimburse them…..quite frankly, there is nothing that I can do. All I can do is try and shake the machine and see if the food wiggles out or put the child’s name on a list to be reimbursed; however, the vending machine representatives come maybe once every six months so the chance for reimbursement is rare. I just feel bad getting called to the vending machines to tell kids that there is nothing that I can do. My second rant goes to those who feel that they can just walk into the facility. I got called to the front desk to talk to a woman whose son is in “Rec 2 Connect,” a water program for autistic kids that is held at the facility. This woman walked right past the front desk to go to the pool but was angered by the fact that someone stopped her and asked where she was going. I tried to explain to her that we are very exclusive and you need to tell the front desk that you are here for a specific program if you're not a member. The woman was not in the mood to listen because she just kept insisting on talking to my manager about the fact that she was stopped…..go right ahead. He will tell you the same thing....I just do not understand why people think they are above the rules. Oh my gosh! I saw Kyrie Irving today!
Let me start from the beginning: Kyrie Irving lives in Westlake, but he rehabs at the Cleveland Clinic which is attached to the Gemini Center. He actually loved the facility so much that he wanted to become a member and the Director at the time actually turned him down because he did not live in Fairview. However, the city later made an exception for the pro-basketball player. So, I was on duty and one of the front desk ladies mentioned that Kyrie was swimming in the pool. I peeked in and it was so cool to see him sitting in the center! He also walked right by me when he was leaving. Now inside I was totally fan-girling, but I did not want to be “that person” so I kept it to myself and said “have a good night.” The best part is that there was a group of AAU 8th grade girls playing basketball in the gym. One of the parents approached me and asked if Kyrie was at the Gemini earlier. When I replied yes, the girls (and coaches) came over so excited. They were going crazy with excitement and even squealed when I told them he walked by me on his way out. That was the best part of what was a rather boring night! So today was just like any other day with basketball practices and whatnot. Around 9:30pm, a woman was walking back and forth by the bathrooms of the gyms. Eventually, she asked me to check the boy’s bathroom to look for her son. When I did not see him in there, she looked in the gym and still did not see him. We then went to the multi-purpose room and when he was not there, she started to panic. She grabbed her daughter and asked where the boy went and last she had seen he was in the bathroom. When I looked again and did not see him, I radioed for a “Code Adam” which is the code call for a missing child. I gave the descriptions of the child over the radio and waited to see if he was in another part of the building. The mom started to become hysterical, running around the building. About five minutes after I called the code, a member of the staff spotted him in the corner of the gym. While I am happy that the boy was found this is just an example of parents leaving their kids in the Gemini. She brought her kids in, essentially said “go play,” went upstairs to workout and only came down to get them. This may not have happened if she had stayed and played with them in the gym.
Typically, my posts are about incidents that occur, but today is different. This may have been one of the best times I have spent at the Gemini. It was actually a very slow day—nothing was really going on. The gym had been empty most of the day, there were no scheduled programs/events going on.
There was a group of about six middle school kids in the gym and they asked me to lower the hoops so they could “dunk” on it. Now they are not actually allowed to dunk on the nets but I told them I would lower it to 9ft. Once I lowered it, they were all having a good time but could not get close to the rim so asked me to lower it again. With hesitation, I lowered it to 8ft with the threat that if they even touched the rim on the hoop I would raise it up. The boys had a blast! They were so funny trying to jump high enough to get a good dunk. It was just a fun time watching them and seeing how happy they were. Obviously, I had to put a time-limit on the fun so after about 15-20 minutes I raised the hoop back up. The best part is that they all thanked me! Normally, when I get a thank you I have to ask for it, but they all thanked me first for letting play with the net down. Prime example of how it really is the little things! So there is most likely something going on every weekend. This weekend was no different. In fact, there was a wedding going on with an Indians theme. I also worked yesterday (Fri Mar 5th) and the wedding party had come in and set up everything. What is one thing that a baseball party would have that would make the maintenance staff mad? Peanuts of course! It makes sense: peanut shells get dumped on the floor then get stepped on so it gets crushed into the rug. That would be very difficult because you can’t vacuum those up, you would have to sweep first, taking extra time.
Once Nancy, the full-time night maintenance staffer, heard about the peanuts she was outraged. Really what it comes down to is communication. Mary Hart, who schedules these events, should have informed the wedding party that peanuts were prohibited. However, that did not occur and all Friday night, Nancy was worried about the mess that would most likely occur. Since I was working tonight as well, when I welcomed the wedding party I made it a point to talk to the wedding party. I asked if they could have guests put the shells on a plate instead of all over the tables or on the floor. Thankfully, when it came time for them to leave there were not many peanuts shells on the carpet. We are very fortunate that these were very nice and cooperative people. There have been many guests that when we ask them to do something out of courtesy they blatantly disregard it. At the end of the day, Nancy was very thankful to me for saying something and the staff did not have to take extra time cleaning up the rooms. I received an e-mail today from Jack, the Programs and Building Facilitator, and it looks like I am getting a new supervisor. In his e-mail, Jack mentioned how he has loved working the last 8 years at Fairview but he is moving on to Brecksville, where he will be in charge of a brand new facility to open August 2016. Unlike when Amanda left, people were not necessarily happy but understood Jack’s decision.
Jack was one of the three remaining original staff members from when the Gemini Center opened in 2008. Since the Gemini has been opened, there have been four Directors. Jack had applied to be the Director three times and was passed over each time. It seems pretty clear that there was no progression for him within Fairview and moving on is more than understandable. Here is the problem to come: who will be the new facility director? It was almost implied that Bob would become part of the full-time staff when Amanda left but now everyone is at a loss as to who it will be. It will be very interesting to see who it will be: a woman, someone from another recreation center, someone from a different background??? |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2016
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