A free giveaway of theme park season passes to low-income families in Kentucky was cut short after chaos broke out when a massive crowd of people showed up.
Budget cuts in Louisville have kept public swimming pools in the city closed, so the Mardrian Group construction company purchased 300 vouchers to Kentucky Kingdom, an amusement and water park, to hand out for kids 14 and under to play and cool off in the hot summer heat.
But the Monday morning sign-up event, which required parents and guardians to show a current Medicaid card to prove income status, attracted a large crowd of more than 1,000 people that quickly got rowdy, with individuals getting frustrated with the organizers and others trying to cut in line.
Trying to get one of 300 free Kentucky Kingdom passes for low-income families? You might want to think again. The line is massive, and, according to @CarolynWLKY, aggressive. pic.twitter.com/YOqkjValSf
— WLKY (@WLKY) June 10, 2019
Jessica Fouch described to the Courier-Journal how her children got hurt. “He got punched in the face, she got kneed in the back, he got squashed and fell down and stepped on, and I had somebody try to set a chair down on my foot,” she said pointing to each of her kids between the ages of 6 and 11. “It was just a mess. It was not working.”
Another woman told CBS-affiliate WLKY that her wheelchair was tipped over. “I didn’t think they’d keep pushing me out of the way,” Theda Penick said.
Louisville police arrived on the scene within 30 minutes to help reestablish order, and an ambulance was called after one person passed out in line during the hot summer day.
The giveaway ended in the afternoon, but not all the passes were handed out. The Mardrian Group said it would consider having another sign-up event in the future, but with a different process.
