Rachel Maestri-Hailey jumps for joy over guiding this group.
in the Outdoor Industry: It’s not just Black and White. WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO GET INVOLVED IN THE AERIAL ADVENTURE INDUSTRY? I’m from Roxbury in Boston. It’s very urban, not a tree in sight. In grade school I moved to Middleboro, Mass., which is very rural. I found comfort amid this really unfamiliar lifestyle at a YMCA camp. My first day on the ropes course was a total life-changing moment for me. There were one or two facilitators of diverse backgrounds like me, and I felt home. I was a total dirtbag climber for a long time. When I decided to leave the chef game, I decided I wanted to do this work for the rest of my days.
54 [www.adventureparkinsider.com]
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSIVITY (DEI) WORK. Bruce Lessol, the former president of Zoar, was a really big advocate for gender diversity in the whitewater paddling industry. I took up the standard from him and said, “Diversity looks so many ways: gender identification, ethnicity, socio-economic status.” I’ve been actively working to use our industry as a tool to create DEI. I’m very lucky in the way I grew up, walking the line between rural and urban, Black and White.
The glaring one is how to re-create our program from the ground up due to COVID-19. One of the ways that we’ve been able to navigate the challenge is to create a culture of learning. Our staff is amazing at taking a look at what’s working and what isn’t working and adjusting as necessary.
KEELEY ROPER General Manager, Kidspace Adventures, U.K.
It was a challenge to change from a team member into management. As much as I knew the “front of house” end of the business—the guest services side—the back end—health and safety, training—that was all new to me. I was motivated to put my whole self into the business. I wanted to be a Rafik to the new team. I see all of these 16-year-olds and know that I was them when I started. It’s a first job for many, and I want them to have fun. I try to be open-minded. It’s an ongoing challenge, which is good. WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU DO THAT DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTES TO YOUR SUCCESS? You look after your team first, and they’ll look after your customers. I want my team to feel comfortable coming to me with anything. We all take things into work sometimes, and as managers it is our job to make sure our staff are OK before they start their shift. They call me a mum-ager, part mum, part manager. Mutual respect is key.
I was able to work with the management team and set up bi-weekly meetings with our staff to create ownership at the ground level. We are looking at a subsidized day education program. We’ve implemented a donation link for all of our guests who book at Zoar to expand access to programming locally.
Keeley Roper joined Kidspace Adventures fresh out of school at age 17. She started in food and beverage service at the Essex-based indoor facility—which has five climbing walls, a Sky Trail, and a gokart track—and worked her way through different departments until she eventually became GM of the operation. “I’ve never been the outdoorsy type,” says Keeley, but she enjoyed learning about the aerial elements on the job. When the pandemic hit, Keeley was instrumental in inventing and implementing new COVID protocols across the 800-person operation.
DESCRIBE A CHALLENGE YOU’VE ENCOUNTERED AND HOW YOU RESPONDED TO IT.
DESCRIBE A CHALLENGE YOU’VE ENCOUNTERED AND HOW YOU RESPONDED TO IT.
THE PANDEMIC HAS CREATED A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY. HOW ARE YOU ADAPTING TO THE CHANGES? I always think communication is so important. Just before lockdown, I started a WhatsApp group for all of the teams. Every couple of days I would check in to make sure people were OK. We were all on furlough, and I didn’t want people to feel like I had just up and gone away. When the government announced that play centers could reopen, I woke up to god knows how many messages—people were excited to come back. And the team worked so hard cleaning. It was inspiring. We wouldn’t have been able to reopen without them.