Kendra evans

Home

A documentary on the Winter Lodge outdoor ice skating rink

By Kendra Evans 1

2

Acknowledgments

Thank you, Linda Jensen, Sabrina Goyal, and everyone else at the Winter Lodge. I quite literally could not have done this project without you. Thank you, Freestyle Academy for giving me the opportunity to make make a stellar project. Finally, thank you, Mom, Dad, and Eric, for giving me an invaluable amount support when I needed it most.

3

Table of Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................... pg 3 Preface ................................................................................. pg 7 Introduction ......................................................................... pg 9 Chapter 1: Business ............................................................. pg 10 Chapter 2: Home is where the Heart is ............................ pg 17 Chapter 3: Sutting Down? ................................................ pg 25 Conclusion ..................................................................... pg 29 Works Cited ................................................................. pg 30

5

Preface

Coming from a Canadian family that absolutely love figure skating and hockey, skating is almost hereditary. I have been learning to skate since I was about two years old, and the Winter Lodge has become a second home to me over the years. I have known many of my teammates for as long as I can remember and we have shared many experiences, both the good and the bad. Needless to say, when Mr. Greco first announced the Documentary project in English class, I knew exactly the location I would depict.

Despite my prior knowledge of and love for the Winter Lodge, this project had many challenges. One major obstacle was a bad case of writer’s block. How do I write about a location that is so important to me and many others? How do I make my writing reflect such a wonderful, inspiring place? Luckily, with a lot of help from peers, family, and teachers, I was able to pull through and grow as a documentarian.

Through this project I have learned how to interview people to find and support a story, and then incorporate what they say into my own work. I also improved my writing abilities tremendously and gained further awareness of the importance of deadlines. All in all, I am proud of this project.

8

Introduction On a crisp winter day when I was eight years old, my family decided to go ice skating for an afternoon. We all put on our skates and started gliding on the clear, glassy ice. My sister, who was five at the time and just learning how to skate, fell down, causing me to laugh and fall down as well. This made both of us laugh even harder.

Afterwards, we went back inside to warm up by the fireplace and drink hot chocolate while still hyped off of the adrenaline of fun. Now, when looking back on those good times, I am stunned by the simplicity of this positive experience. How could something as simple as ice be so important and lead to such a fun time?

Since 1955, when it was founded by Duncan Williams, the Winter Lodge has been providing fun bonding experiences among families through their open ice rink and their skating school for all ages. The holiday season is the busiest time of year. As many families come to have fun ice skating and enjoy winter time in California, the lodge needs to double up on staff. Then, in April every year, the spring production showcases everyone from the tiny four year olds, to the graduating high school seniors, and even sometimes the teachers. It is impressive for a small business to double up on staff, put on an extravagant show, and still be able to compete with larger companies.

Throughout 60 years, the Winter Lodge has faced many trials such as when they almost shut down in 1983. Yet they still compete as a small business, provide a supportive community for families, and have persevered through all their tribulations.

9

Chapter 1: Business

T

he Winter Lodge takes pride in how the company is run. Certainly, they have so much going on and are still able to run smoothly as a small business.

Usually, a small business has fewer than 500 employees, which may seem like a lot, but when you compare that number to the amount of employees at a well known franchise such as Starbucks, that is only a fraction. However, the size of the company does not matter as much as the customer service. Starbucks, which tries in some ways to emulate small business, has an interesting approach as to how customer service should be executed. According to Joseph A. Michelli, the author of The Starbucks Experience:

“No manager can tell employ ees how to bring out their individuality while function ing effectively... no scripted customer service approach can make this happen. But leaders at Starbucks have pro vided a structure that allows [employees] to infuse them selves into their work, so that they can inspire custom

ers in legendary ways The

leaders call this the ‘Five

Ways of Being’: Be welcom

ing, be genuine, be consider

ate, be knowledgeable, be

involved” (Michelli 20-21).

What Michelli is saying is that employees at Starbucks are encouraged to put their own spin on the company’s guidelines. This freedom helps employees make each experience with a customer personal. The customers then feel appreciated and are more likely to come back again and become a regular customer. This customer loyalty helps small businesses by giving the company publicity when the customers talk to friends. This bond between customer and employee is also what keeps the company running and establishes it as part of the local community.

Likewise, at the Winter Lodge, the employees are encouraged to make each experience with customers unique and positive. Linda Jensen, director of the Winter Lodge, claims that her “first goal is for them [the customers] to be comfortable, welcomed

and feeling interested and curious” (Jensen). Jensen regards the Winter Lodge as a welcoming, happy place for people of all skill levels.

This is very different from other skating rinks with a competitive atmospheres that only grant membership to the incredibly skilled.

Instead, the Winter Lodge is open to everyone who wants to learn to skate and have fun with friends.

The staff makes that idea happen by being courteous to all guests and helping them in any way they can. This provides a truly unique skating experience for all who come and gives customer loyalty a place to thrive.

Another tool that businesses use to be successful is to advertise.

As Hannah Martin, author of Ten Things to Consider Before Starting a Home Business, puts it, “You may have the best business in the country, but if no one knows you exist you’ll never make it a success” (Martin). This means that advertisement is essential to starting a business and to keep it going.

Otherwise, no one will know your company exists. This is extremely important for small businesses 11

because not many people know about them, whereas larger companies already are well known and have a lots of customers. However, the Winter Lodge does barely any advertising. According to Jensen, “for us we rely on word of mouth so meaning that friends will tell friends on what is a good program for their kids. … [We] rely on that parent networking.” (Jensen). What Jensen is saying is that “traditional advertising,” such as posters or television ads, is not necessarily needed to get customers to come to your company. From my personal experience, this advertising strategy seems to be working fairly well, because the Winter Lodge has gotten substantially bigger when it comes to the number of skaters since I began skating there. Having that, “parent networking,” as Jensen puts it, helps the business by creating free advertising and an atmosphere that customers grow fond of, therefore facilitating consumer loyalty and creating a service that customers won’t be able to find anywhere else.

It seems fairly easy to run a business; the two most important

things are great customer service and advertising of some sort. This raises the question, is it harder to run a business when it is also a nonprofit organisation?

A non-profit organisation is an organisation that takes whatever money is left over at the end of the year and puts it back into the system to fund future projects, whereas in a regular company, any money left over is taken by the owner as personal profit. This allows “the Winter Lodge [to be] one of the nicest rinks anywhere because [they] keep [their] facility in top shape since nobody’s at the end of the year taking money off of the top to try to live off of. We are 100% operationally funded� (Jensen). In other words, Jensen believes that the Winter Lodge greatly benefits from being a non-profit because they are able to use any left over revenues to improve their facilities.

Since no one is taking any left over money for personal profit, the company is able to use all of the money it earns. Being a non profit company also tells possible customers that the business is up and running for the people it serves, and not for

an owner driven by the need to earn money.

However, there can be some challenges when maintaining a nonprofit company. Jensen believes that “it is a little more pressure to succeed financially because there is no one that is gonna hand us money at the end of the year if we don’t make enough to pay for our costs.

Whereas in a private business the owner can put money in and sort of bail it out. … there’s nobody that’s going to hand us money to keep going. We have to have to be really careful about how we run the business.” (Jensen). Although there is no owner that can put in extra money, the Winter Lodge does fairly well as a non-profit. There is a continuously growing amount of skaters, which means more income for the company to improve the facilities. Being a non-profit also means that the business needs to manage their revenues, carefully.

This is good because it means that the company will put a lot of thought into each financial decision so that the experience customers receive is always spot on.

Having welcoming employ-

“the Winter Lodge is one of the nicest rinks anywhere because we keep our facility in top shape since nobody’s at the end of the year taking money off of the top to try to live off of. We are 100% operationally funded.” ~Linda Jensen ees, effective advertising, and being thoughtful with expenses are all important to running a business, but it is only one half of the equation to being successful. If a business is to succeed, not only do you need to have great customer service and advertising, but you also need a community that fully supports the company. At the Winter Lodge, not only does the community support the business, but they have become like a family to the Winter Lodge.

15

Chapter 2: Home is where the Heart is

comes, and doesn’t even get off the ground.

The second one is worse. Overall your performance was atrocious to you.

However, your friends are cheering from the sidelines.

The all rush over to you with open arms and high ou fives. They’re sayskate ing you did amazing, not onto the ice. It’s your caring about the seemingly awful turn to present to your peers how far jumps and telling you every you did you have come on your solo for testgreat. This is a true story about my ing. Are you nervous? Oh yeah! You own experience at a practice. From know your jumps aren’t even close to that event was the first time that perfect. You know you’re not ready I truly understood what commuto test, but you don’t want to look nity and family meant at the Winter bad in front of your friends. Might as Lodge. well give this run all you’ve got, even

Community is what brings if it’s a shaky run. The music starts, people together. Members share interests, ideas, and help each other 18 and you go. The first jump

Y

when times get hard. Eventually, once everyone has known each other for a while and learned everything there is about one another, that community becomes more of a family.

They help each other when they’re down and applaud one another when they have achieved something.

When you are skating as a team, respect and trust are extremely important. At the Winter Lodge, everyone one you meet will be will support you when you struggle, and count on you to do the same for them. One example would be when the Icettes, the highest level of drill team at the Winter Lodge, attempted to do a move called the circle of death. This is when teammates skate backwards in two circles that go in different directions. Then skaters cross from one circle to the other, while still moving backwards, to form a continuous figure eight pattern. Needless to say this maneuver is very difficult and takes a long time to get right. After numerous tries, the team got frustrated, but we all helped each other out and trained together so that we could master it. Although the coaches eventually took the circle of death out of the routine, practicing

19

20

the move made us stronger as a team and as individual skaters. We became closer to one another and formed last bonds with one another.

Many people believe that skating is incredibly competitive. However, this is not entirely true. While many rinks do have competitive skaters that perform in competitions, the Winter Lodge just teaches basic skills to students, and then specialized moves such as jumps and spins if the student wishes to continue their learning. One of the coaches, Terri Evans, puts it this way: “I’ve taught at competitive rinks and I don’t miss it at all because I like the idea of you work at your own pace and set your own goals and go where you wanna go” (Evans). This non-competitive atmosphere relieves the pressure of being the best, and the student is then able to improve their skills at their own pace. Students should skate and improve their skills because they want to, not because they want to earn a gold medal or a trophy, and the leisurely atmosphere enables that.

It also makes classes fairer between students. Evans describes teaching multiple students as “not comparing one child to another or one skater

to another. There is a standard, and when you get there you are ready to test” (Evans). Teachers don’t only work with one student because they are top of the class. Instead teachers work with every student they teach to

home. … I heard a story from Mai when she graduated she drove to Winter Lodge when the season ended and just sat in the parking lot and cried. I remember hearing that story when I was a junior and being like ‘oh Mai’ but now like I understand” (Goyal). What Goyal is saying is that the Winter Lodge has become such a big part of her life that it will be hard for her to leave when she graduates high school. This emotional connection to the Winter Lodge is very common among the skaters. They go there when they feel down and need to vent to someone. They can count on the Winter Lodge to be a “comfort place and we feel like can be our ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to move into higher levels. weird selves here” (Goyal). Anyone This lessens the likeness of teachers is free to be any way they want to be, because wherelse is a better place to picking favorites and every one is friendlier towards each other because be silly and happy with close family they are not competing over being and friends than at home? There is best in the class. Students are able to sometimes drama and politics like in any family, but at the end of the day work together and learn from each the Winter Lodge family sticks toother, and form strong bonds as felgether through any hardship. low skaters and teammates.

These strong bonds are what forms the Winter Lodge family.

Sabrina Goyal, a skilled skater at the Winter Lodge and one of my teammates, believes, “Winter Lodge is my 21

“You work at your own pace and set your own goals.” ~Terri Evans

22

23

24

Chapter 3: Shutting Down?

25

26

E

ric T. Wagner, a writer on Forbes magazine claims that, “eight out of ten businesses fail within the first eighteen months” (Wagner). You can’t make money if your customers don’t want to do business with you, and the quickest way to reach a mass amount of people in this day and age is to use the internet. Also, millions of people shop online, so it would be in a business’s best interest to have an online store so more people could buy your products quicker. Most businesses fail because of not listening to customers and not using the internet to advertise. It seems very obvious that a business would fail if they do either of those.

The Winter Lodge has never had to go through any of these types of problems, but in 1983, the owner, Duncan Williams, decided to close the Winter Lodge. According to Terri Evans, the Winter Lodge was

“owned by Duncan Wil

liams who moved out

from the midwest to Cali fornia and wanted to build

an ice rink. He had some engineering background.

So he built the rink, fig ured out how to do it and then it was the ‘Winter Club’. You had to have a membership. Then he wanted to retire and sell it off in the 1980’s … there was a commu nity outcry to save the Winter Lodge so what they did was they put a measure on the bal lot and the city of Palo Alto - if the voters approved - was going to do a land swap with Duncan. They would give him a piece of land which is now on the end of Embarcade ro road on the baylands in Palo Alto and they [the city] would get the land the Winter Lodge was on.

Then its run by and inde pendent board of direc tors and Linda is the di

rector of the skating show and answers to the board. The directors are various people in the community. Many of them skate at the Winter Lodge or have grown up skating at the Winter Lodge” (Evans).

When Duncan decided to retire and sell the Winter Lodge, the community would not have it.

The community decided to save it so that it could be enjoyed by future generations. It is remarkably difficult to rally people together to stand up for anything, but nonetheless devoted members of the Winter Lodge were able to come together and save it, just as a family comes together in times of need.

27

Conclusion

Throughout 60 years, the Winter Lodge has competed as a small business, provided a supportive community for people of all ages, and persevered through conflicts such as almost closing for good.

The employees are welcoming to each customer and make every experienc as positive as they can. This

creates a community within the Winter Lodge where everyone respects and supports each other. I certainly hope there will be no more problems like in 1983, but I do know that if there are, the Winter Lodge will pull through and come out of it a better company than they are now. Speaking of the future, the Winter

Lodge will be celebrating it’s 60th birthday and the next spring show will have something to do with diamonds to commemorate it.

Sixty years of being a wonderful company and home

to so many people. Here is to another 60 years of family and fun!

29

Works Cited “A History of Winter Lodge.” A History of Winter Lodge. Palo Alto Online, 16 Jan. 2012.

Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

Bischoff, Dan. “INFOGRAPHIC: History of the Small Business Administration (SBA) |

Lendio.” Lendio. N.p., 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 10 Feb. 2015.

Carter, JC. “The Pros and Cons of Owning a Business.” Hostway Blog The Pros and

Cons of Owning a Business Comments. N.p., 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

Evans, Terri. Personal interview. 11 February 2015.

Goyal, Sabrina. Personal interview. 3 March 2015.

Jensen, Linda. Personal interview. 11 March 2015.

Martin, Hannah. “Ten Things to Consider before Starting a Home Business.”

Www.theguardian.com. N.p., 2 Apr. 2014. Web. 10 Feb. 2015.

Michelli, Joseph A. The Starbucks Experience: 5 Examples of Turning Ordinary into

Extraordinary. New York City: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Print.

30

Nazar, Jason. “16 Surprising Statistics About Small Businesses.” Forbes. Forbes

Magazine, 09 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

Oskoui, Tira. “The Winter Lodge Preserves Winter Traditions.” Verde Magazine Palo

Alto High Schools Student Publication. Palo Alto High School, 06 Dec. 2013.

Web. 10 Feb. 2015.

“Small Businesses Vs. Big Companies.” TheStreet. N.p., 19 Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2015.

“Smallbusiness.wa.gov.au.” Business Management Skills. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2015.

“The South Bay’s Best Ice Skating Spots.” CBS San Francisco. N.p., 10 Nov. 2012.

Web. 10 Feb. 2015.

Thorpe, Travis. “The Top 5 Reasons Small Businesses Fail.” Inc.com. N.p., 17 July 2014.

Web. 09 Apr. 2015.

Wagner, Eric T. “Five Reasons 8 Out Of 10 Businesses Fail.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 12

Sept. 2013. Web. 09 Apr. 2015.

31

DW Bear

35

36

Author Bio

Kendra Evans is a Junior at Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy. She lives with her Mother, Father, little sister, and dog.

Her favorite past time is drawing or watching Disney movies or Doctor Who. Aside from skating at the Winter Lodge in teams such as Theater on Ice, Advanced Jazz and Icettes, she also participates in her high school’s color guard and choir, and designs some of her own clothes. After high school Kendra plans to study fashion design and one day open her own boutique.

37