Discussions

Following is an e-mail sent to the Manager of Brandon fairs. It was met with no response:  
 
I was quite shocked to find out that the midway sounds and lights at the fair took president over the safety of children at this years Summer fair. This year we had an instance of my child's friend joining us, informing us that her parents were aware of this. Upon attempting to return her friend to her parents, we were unable to locate them.  
 
We went to the guest relations at the midway, and were informed that they had no way of paging someone, but someone at the far end of the fair at the CKLQ child safe location could page someone, but the page WOULD NOT be able to be heard at this end of the fair! Upon going to that location (my wife and I split up, still looking for the parents), we were told that they were only contracted to put speakers up at that end of the fair, and were NOT allowed to do so around the midway.  
 
I understand that it would be quite difficult to hear a page over the midway sounds, but if you were a parent looking for your child, you would be listening for anything. This tells me the the fair organizers were more concerned about the midway running smoothly than in the safety of the children in our community.  
 
There is absolutely no excuse for this at all. Speakers should be set up all over the fair, inside and out, and they should be able to be accessed (by appropriate staff/volunteers) from a central location. Period. This needs to be addressed, for future fairs. I am sure the community would be quite shocked to hear that this is the policy of the Brandon Fairs organizers. If this is not addressed, a copy of this e-mail will be going to the Brandon Sun, to ensure that the community is aware. I am hoping that this is something that was done from the midway staff, and not the Brandon fairs staff, but either way, it needs to be ensured it does not happen again.