The White Lake Water Park has been a favorite destination for locals and tourists every summer for the past 16 years. The family-friendly aquatic park has twisting waterslides, a lazy river, swimming and wading pools, bumper boats, go-karts, and a gift shop.
However, this year the park will not be open due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) Pandemic.
Connie Hucks, an owner of the park, explained, “I wouldn’t jeopardize anyone’s health to be open. It’s too much of a risk.”
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Hucks was contemplating opening, but since the Phase 2 restrictions continue, she and her husband, Ted Hucks, decided to close the park for this season.
She explained, “The COVID isn’t going to leave us that quickly. You can sanitize all you want, but you can’t keep people at a safe distance while swimming.”
Last year the park would bring in up to 2,000 people a day starting with Memorial Day weekend. The Hucks employ 35 to 40 seasonal workers each summer too.
Hucks shows great care for her staff members. “I’m concerned for them,” she added, “I wouldn’t want anyone to get sick because we decided to open. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”
She said, “I think next year will be a good year if this virus will go away. We have a lot of repeat customers like daycares and church groups. They were sad because we weren’t opening this year, but they understand it’s for safety.”
“We will be ok,” Hucks said. “I think businesses have it better than some citizens because we can get loans and stuff. We are doing some things we haven’t had time to do because of having to open.”
In closing, she said, “We need to pray for the nation that we will get a vaccine for this COVID, and it will go away, and we can go back to living instead of being scared to go outside in public.”
White Lake Water Park is located at 192 NC-53, Elizabethtown, North Carolina.
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