Sunday blog: Taking responsibility
Commentary by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — It is too bad Derrick Prichard, owner of Aahn’s Pace, decided to take an adversarial path in his parting statement to closing his business.
He states:
“Unfortunately during the time we were open, it became apparent to us that many people in the city of Wellington do not support a children’s home or an organization who provided many jobs to the citizens of the community… Far too often social service and caring in foster care is under appreciated or over criticized.”
Undoubtedly, Aahn’s Place and the ‘City of Wellington’ have had a difficult relationship since the residential group home for children ages 10-18 opened in early 2018.
But your exit can soften the blow and create a more positive legacy.
Now, if I were in charge of Aahn’s Place, this is how I would have written my parting statement:
“Today, my family and I decided to close Aahn’s Place.
While it hasn’t always been easy, we appreciate the Wellington community for all it’s done over the past four years, including the Wellington Police Department, which spent countless hours trying to keep the community safe.
Yes, we have made mistakes, but you have been patient. For that, we will be forever grateful.
Working with troubled youth is always a difficult proposition. These are children who have never had a fair shake in life. Our goal is to give them some semblance of guidance and hope so they may have a promising future, much like you and I were given.
Once again, thanks, and let’s continue to strive to help find a solution for these young individuals.”
It would have been so simple. It would have removed the focus from all that went wrong during Aahn’s five-year-plus tenure and put it back on the children, which I assume was the reason for the business.
Mr. Prichard isn’t the first businessman who came into town and left with a scorched earth message.
I’ll never forget the Crusader 6 – a movie six-plex that was built in east Wellington in the late 1990s in that dilapidated strip mall no longer standing and that pot-holed parking lot.
When the owner decided to shut its doors after six or so months in business, he left this phone message:
“We have decided to shut our doors because the community of Wellington won’t support local business.”
I had to laugh. It couldn’t have been that it was a 50-50 proposition if you could get through a movie before the film projector broke down. Or you had to worry about a ceiling tile falling on you because of the shoddy workmanship of the facility. Or maybe it was because you needed to buy bottled water at the concession stand because that was the only way you could wash down the popcorn buried in all that salt.
But, no, let’s blame Wellington.
I am all for supporting local business, and believe we need to attract as many companies as possible to sustain the economy. And if you have a grievance with a business, don’t use social media to lodge your complaint.
But in turn, these business owners need to realize that you can’t expect the community to support a troubled product.
A community has no obligation to support you if you aren’t going to provide the service they need.
In Aahn’s case, there was a barrage of problems, from community vandalism to school incidents to using so much time of our police department.
People were losing their patience.
One of the most recurring themes I heard from people is, “Why don’t I do a story on Aahn’s Place and the problems the group home has caused?”
Part of the reason I drug my feet is because I didn’t want to hurt the children. I didn’t want to take away a vessel that could improve their lives.
The past four years have provided for some tough situations and a burden on many Wellington residents—some who were never asked to be involved.
You can blame the community all you want. But there’s this thing called taking personal responsibility.
