On Sunday, June 2, 2019, our 4-H club members and their parents toured your facility and took part in some of the activities you offer. The children were ages 5 to 18. They all enjoyed the Greenbank Observatory and learned information about radio waves and the solar system. The lady with long blond hair that worked in the gift shop was so nice to everyone in the group. She helped explain the tour process and directed the group to where they needed to be. She went above and beyond what would be expected of a gift shop sales associate.
With the above being said, we would like to express our disappointment and frustration with other employees. We were scheduled to arrive at 10:30. However our bus had some difficulties and we didn’t arrive until a little after 11:00. When the club leader walked in and went to the information desk, Arlene was extremely rude about our tardiness. She then just said to go to the room at the end of the hall – not even giving us time to get everyone off the bus and situated. When we would ask what time our next activity would start, she would just say to listen to the announcements. The announcements would say something to the effect of, “The 1:00 tour is now starting.” or “The 2:00 star lab is now starting.” We were never given an itinerary of our activities so we didn’t know which tour time or activity time was ours. Again, we would have to ask Arlene which was for us and again she would be quite rude.
When it was time for our group to participate in the tower building STEM activity, there were three teens seated in the lobby with two adults. The lady who was teaching the class came and told them to come to the room to start the activity. The kids were still eating and a told her that they were not participating in the activity. She became rude with them and insisted that they had to go. Finally, one of the fathers stepped in and told her that they were not going to go with her. They were still eating and two of the three have extreme anxiety issues and were having some difficulties due to that. No, she didn’t know what was going on with the kids but she should not have talked to them the way she did. They were not causing a disturbance and were seated with two parents.
One of the parents has a panic disorder and cannot be in small enclosed areas. When the group she was with went to Starlab, she let the guide know that she would not be able to go into the inflatable planetarium but there were several other parents going in that would help chaperone the kids. The guide became short with her and told her her, “If you want to be a boring person you can just go out and sit for 45 minutes.”
The driver of our tour bus came into the building to buy lunch about an hour after we started our visit. The bus driver asked Arlene a question and received an extremely rude response. The driver told us about this on our way back home. Before she told us, she did not know what had already transpired with our group and the inconsiderate employees of your establishment.
The club members were very well behaved and respectful. I am quite proud of how our children behaved. These kids worked hard to raise enough money to charter a bus. They washed cars. They shoveled horse stalls. They worked bake sales. They picked up litter. It is a shame that they and their parents worked so hard for this trip but were...
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