Adventures at Valley Fair

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to participate in a classic youth group ministry—going to Valley Fair. We are between Youth Directors right now at Chain of Lakes, so I agreed to help organize the activity.   

Valley Fair has a special place of nostalgia for me. I remember going there with my Youth Group from Worthington, Minnesota about forty years ago.  We went to Valley Fair the first year the park opened in 1978. According to their web site then the park had twenty rides and was on 26 acres. The big thrill was going on High Roller, their big “white” roller coaster.  Today the park has eight roller coasters and High Roller seems like an old antique. 

Valley Fair is not a quaint park. Today it has over 75 rides on 125 acres of land. The most popular part of the park is the Splash Pad. It seemed on Saturday that at least half of the people at the park were hanging out there.   

Funny how our own age can change a perspective on something like Valley Fair. When I was a teenager Valley Fair was the big time—a place where the cool kids from the Cities hung out and made an impression on my rural sensibility. On Saturday I was thinking about how everything was laid out and how well the park is run.   

Amusement Parks like Valley Fair are very big business. Cedar Fair LC owns Valley Fair. They are a company traded on the New York Stock Exchange; they own eleven regional amusement parks, four water parks, and two sporting destinations. In 2022 they took in over a billion dollars in total revenue. Valley Fair is the largest amusement park in the Midwest. 

But none of that was on my mind when the Chain of Lakes middle school group went to Valley Fair on Saturday. We were looking to have a fun time. We went on as many of the rides as we could. I like to go on rides and told the youth I would go on any ride that they wanted to try. 

The new ride for me was the Xtreme Swing.  We sit in a row and are swung ahead and behind at 60 miles per hour. The structure is ten stories tall. I don’t keep my eyes open. I’m just focusing on the experience and trying not to be scared. When I’m riding at such a high speed I’m reminding myself that many people go on this ride and the ride is inspected and safe. The experience reminded me of a comment I recently heard that when a person or organization is in stress they defer to their training. When I was traveling at such a high speed I’m reminding myself that the ride is inspected and is safe. No one has died. And that is comforting! 

I’ve always been impressed by the new rides that Valley Fair has almost every year. If I had been transported from the 70’s to the park today I would have hardly recognized the park. Every part has been changed and updated. I can’t help but think about lessons for the church, especially the mainline church. Many of our worship services and buildings don’t seem that much different from forty years ago. 

Our youth group had a blast at Valley Fair. I didn’t get to go on Wild Thing or Excalibur because a thunderstorm was moving through the area. All of the rides were shut-down until the storm went through. I had no problem with that decision. I wouldn’t want to be swinging ten stories high on Xtreme Swing with a thunderstorm nearby. 

Because the rides had stopped our group left a bit early. But it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for what we experienced. The youth in my car were soon asleep as we were driving away leaving me to wonder how many Youth Groups trips have been made to Valley Fair.