She thought she had her future all planned out, but Cindee Patrick’s career choice took a big turn in 1977 when she visited her first theme park, Six Flags Over Texas, in Arlington. Patrick, then 10 years old, had pretty much decided she wanted to operate a Kmart store, but after riding an array of rides that afternoon in the park, she changed her mind.

“I’m going to operate a ride. This is what I’m going to do,” she proclaimed to whomever would listen. Not just any ride at any park. It was going to be at Six Flags Over Texas. Good-bye Kmart aspirations.

“At 10, I really thought I’d be a part of Six Flags, in management for life,” she tells FUNWORLD . “When I was a teenager, my mother would drop us off at Six Flags at a babysitting service and then pick us up later. We got to know the rides, the operators, and the entire park very well. My love for the amusement industry grew out of that early love for Six Flags Over Texas.”

She began her park career there as Daffy Duck and worked her way up the management ladder at Opryland USA, Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, Texas, and MGM Grand Adventures in Las Vegas.

Today, Patrick is a well-known and respected industry consultant, having served more than 50 clients during the past nine years, including the Six Flags chain. She currently serves as the Training Task Chair for ASTM International; she’s on the board of the Amusement Industry Manufacturer and Suppliers Association (AIMS) and is a member of both the Outdoor Amusement Business Association and IAAPA.

As an instructor at the annual AIMS Safety Seminar, Patrick won the Antonio Zamperla Award in 2002 for her commitment to operations safety in the industry and the Harold Chance Award for Best Seminar Pre­sentation in 2004.

She and her business partner, Patty Beazley, own and operate When Pigs Fly, a creative operational concepts company that emphasizes the enhancement of ride and aquatic operations.

The company was founded in 2002 when Patrick was called upon to create a kickoff orientation for 300 inner city kids who had been hired as seasonal help at Libertyland theme park in Memphis, Tennessee. Patrick realized she would need help and called on Beazley, whom she had met while serving as an intern at Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee. Both women live in the Nashville area and drove to Memphis to conduct the program.

“During our drive back to Nashville, we were excited and quite proud of what we had accomplished. It was obvious that we clicked and we decided that we should work together,” Patrick says. “We needed a name and all of a sudden ‘When Pigs Fly’ rolled off our little Southern tongues, and we knew that was it. We are known to most as the ‘Pig Girls.’ ”

The ‘Pig Girls’ Take Flight
Beazley notes the name sounded perfect the first time it was vocalized in the car that day. “When pigs fly” is a Southern United States term with a meaning similar to that of “a snow-ball’s chance in hell” or “when the cow jumps over the moon.”

“We felt it was perfect for us because here were two country girls who planned to teach and motivate industry professionals, including guys who had been in the industry for years.”

The name is catchy and memorable but it can cause some confusion, Beazley acknowledges: “It’s not uncommon to be walking through a park or around a convention floor and hear someone call out, ‘hey, pig lady.’ That’s good. On the other hand, some people think we’re in the barbecue business.”

Patrick, the little piggy at five feet tall, is the cheerleader of the team, while Beazley is the “real educator and the calm in the storm,” according to Patrick. In addition to her 26 years of experience in the theme park and waterpark industry, Beazley is an adjunct member of the faculty for Nashville State Community College; she has been teaching psychology for nearly 20 years.

“Cindee really does utilize her high school and college cheerleading experience in getting our students pumped up and motivated,” Beazley says of her business partner. “She gets them excited and passionate, and I take over and add the educational spin. It works.”

The pig team has brought drama, laughter, fun, and a whole new method of learning to the amusement industry. The ladies are known for their crazy yet educational antics to ensure a message is driven and understood by all. Their love and passion for the industry, fueled with the desire for young minds to be their best, became a staple for the company, right from that first program at Libertyland. In subsequent years, Patrick and Beazley have taught a variety of educational classes in guest service, safety, coaching, training, and leadership. They also specialize in manual writing, operational safety audits, and on-site ride training.

Both women spent many years working a variety of jobs in theme parks and have a special affinity for frontline workers, especially ride operators who, they point out, have a special talent. “Ride operators need to be incredible multitaskers,” Patrick notes. “Operating a ride is like being on stage with your entire audience following you around. There are so many things to be done in a sequence and so many potential diversions. We know from firsthand experience that it takes real talent. Yet, awesome operators make it look like an art form. Unfortunately, many people underestimate what an incredibly hard job it is.”

Out of all the curricula When Pigs Fly has created, Patrick especially likes to teach the three-day Ride Operations Trainer Certification (ROTC) program. “We believe the best way to learn is out on the field with a great coach who can teach fundamentals and clearly lay out specific expectations so all team mem­bers can be headed toward the same goal,” she says. The three-day on-site ROTC program teaches the trainers to instruct the frontline ride operators the proven Pigs’ way.

Patrick says they take operator trainers to a new level of training by using creative activities and ideas to drive home the importance of each operator task: “It is imperative that the trainers teach the operators to do it right each and every time whether a supervisor is present or not. Operators must perform their jobs with a clear understanding of why they do it, the benefits of doing it, and the consequences of failing to do it.”

That is achieved by teaching each ride operator the skills, tasks, and daily duties necessary to do the job, but also (and more important, according to Patrick), the reasons for each task; at what level the task should be performed; and the positive result or the “payoff” for performing at their best each and every time.

Patrick and Beazley had what they call an “amazing opportunity” in 2006 to “teach and impact” more than 1,000 frontline supervisors in a number of facilities, including Silver Dollar City, Six Flags Over Georgia, Six Flags New England, Alabama Adventure, Lagoon, Frontier City, The Track Go Karts, the Northwest Showmen’s League, AIMS, and the World Waterpark Association. Their 2007 goal is to grow their reach to 2,500 frontline supervisors.

Preparing for Life
Patrick claims she never played with dolls. Instead, she played business. “I pretended that I owned a little campground, and I worked the reservation desk. I created a little map that showed all the camp sites.”

While attending Southwest Texas State, majoring in recreational administration, Patrick was accepted into the management intern program at Opryland USA, where she worked in a variety of jobs during the summers of 1990 and 1991. When she graduated, Opryland was building Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, and she landed a full-time supervisory job in operations on that park’s opening team; she was responsible for 16 rides and 400 employees.

“That was an important step in my career,” Patrick notes. “My bosses at Fiesta Texas were Willie Garza and Roy Turley, and they gave me huge responsibilities right from the start. They didn’t care if I was a girl fresh out of college.”

Garza, now general manager of IMAX at the Rivercenter Mall in San Antonio, recalls Patrick as a quick, enthusiastic learner who rarely, if ever, let him down. “Cindee was a high-spirited individual who was always willing to go that extra mile. I’m real proud of what she did for us and what she has gone on to do,” Garza says.

In 1993 Las Vegas came calling. Patrick was 25 years old and had never been to Vegas until she went for a job interview with the MGM Grand Adventures theme park that was then under development. Upon arrival, she put two quarters into a slot machine and won $40—and she was hooked. “It wasn’t the winning that hooked me as much as the concept that something like this even existed,” she says.

In Las Vegas, she saw another empty lot with great potential for a theme park. “I drove by, and it was staring at me,” she laughs, noting the same thing happened when she first saw the Fiesta Texas site. Her Fiesta Texas experience had taught her a sellable skill, and she soon was asked to join the opening team of the Las Vegas themer that would fill that empty lot.

Any mixed feelings about leaving her team in San Antonio? “No, not really. There were bigger challenges, brighter lights, and a lot more money waiting for me in Las Vegas,” she recalls, adding that once again she was amazed at how much responsibility was placed on her as part of the development team. “It was truly baptism by fire and a great way for me to grow. If they hadn’t trusted me and given me so much to run with, I would not have learned so much, so quickly.”

She says she wondered then and has often wondered since if her bosses were “shaking in their shoes.” As she teaches today, she tries to give young professionals as many opportunities as she can. “It’s the best, most efficient way to grow,” she adds. “I try to teach them the same wonderful things I was taught.”

Once the MGM Grand Adventures was up and operating, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky. She landed a job with the University of Louisville as an event coordinator where she managed more than 200 events in the 16 months she was at the university.

Patrick had felt “sick” about leaving the amusement industry but the options to stay in the industry in Louisville at the time were not very large.

The Birth of a Consultant
Her first consulting job was with Columbian Park, a small 14-ride park in Lafayette, Indiana. She created the park’s operational program, wrote its standard operating procedures manual, and created the safety signage. She liked the idea of consulting.

“It was fun watching people react to the positive changes that my ideas helped create,” she says. “It was fun to see people feel at ease with and learn a healthy respect for the machinery they put people on. It was rewarding to see the operators reach a whole new level in their responsibility for safety.”

Patrick says it was a “huge decision” to leave full-time employment, but she felt comfortable with her reasons for doing so. It wasn’t long before she moved to Nashville and secured the Libertyland consulting job, which led to her and Beazley creating When Pigs Fly.

Less than six months after the Libertyland job, Patrick started consulting with Premier Parks on signage, SOP, and baseline training. When Premier Parks purchased the Six Flags chain, there was an immediate need to standardize all ride training and associated material for the 1,500 rides then owned by Six Flags. The company called on When Pigs Fly to do what was needed.

Jim Seay, now president of Premier Rides, has worked with Patrick for more than 15 years in various roles at Six Flags and through IAAPA, AIMS and ASTM. He notes she has demonstrated an intense devotion to the industry and to ensuring that safety is at the forefront of every element of a park’s operation.

Seay says there is good reason Patrick is recognized as being one of the industry’s “best and brightest” trainers. “As she briskly enters a train­ing class with 35 or 40 ride technicians, most of whom are highly talented industry professionals, you can clearly see an initial look of bewilderment as these students who are probably twice Cindee’s size eye up their instructor, who looks and sounds more like a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader than an industry trainer,” Seay says. “Within five minutes, however, every one in the room is focused and engaged in the subject at hand.

“She takes total control of the environment and stays on message throughout,” Seay adds. “At the end of the class those students have not only learned a valuable lesson regarding some aspect of safe park operation, but I guarantee they will have learned a lesson on expectations!”

Writing and Teaching
When Pigs Fly will once again work with Six Flags in the upcoming 2007 season, conducting operational quality assurance audits, and they will continue to write policies and standard operating procedures for parks, carnivals, and the inflatables industry.

Patrick and Beazley have chosen a “party theme” on which to build their 2007 classes and seminars. There will be music, possibly dancing, singing, and more creative ways to learn. “We want everyone to be the best they can be,” Beazley adds. “Come to our party, learn, get motivated, and deepen your passion for this wonderful industry we have all chosen.”

For more information about When Pigs Fly, call +1 615/885-4960, or visit www.whenpigsfly101.com.

The Patrick Files Cindee Ann Patrick Born: Oct. 10, 1967, in Arlington, Texas, 10 minutes from Six Flags Over Texas Marital status: Single with two dogs and a cat, South, Smokey, and Izzy, respectively Education: B.S. in Recreation Management from Southwest Texas State First job: As Daffy Duck at Six Flags Over Texas, 1984. Also served as Yosemite Sam. “Since I’m only five feet tall, I was too short to play most of the characters.” College internship: Management Intern Program, Opryland USA, Nashville, Tennessee, during two summers, 1990-91 First full-time industry job: Ride operations supervisor on the grand-opening team of Fiesta Texas, San Antonio Current position: Co-owner of When Pigs Fly, a creative operational concepts company that emphasizes enhancing ride and aquatic park operations Mentor: Roy Turley, who “taught me that the development of people always comes first and that a passionate employee is the best employee.” Hobbies: Running and scrapbooking On reading: “I’m an avid reader. I read all of Zig Ziglar and John Maxwell’s books and go to all of their seminars.” On movies: “I’m a traditional chick flick fan. I don’t like action movies. I see enough action in theme parks.” Favorite ride: “The Rattler” at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. “I watched it being built, I was among the first to ride it, and it was the first wooden coaster I operated.” Favorite park: Opryland, now defunct. “The music, the landscaping, the people, and all that great Southern hospitality combined to make Opryland a truly unusual park.” What most people would be surprised to know about Cindee: She teaches Sunday school for second-grade children and has a “total love” for animals. She would like to have a billy goat with a long beard someday.