[February 14, 2013] |
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California Family Fitness Co-Founder Responds to Misleading Media Report
ORANGEVALE, Calif. --(Business Wire)--
Today Larry Gury, Co-Founder, Co-CEO, of California Family Fitness
(CFF), released the following statement in response to a KCRA report on
Feb. 12, regarding an incident that occurred at the company's Natomas
Club two years ago.
"KCRA aired what it called an investigative report about childcare and
our facilities. Despite the fact that we provided the reporter with
extensive information, the result wasn't balanced or accurate. I take
too much pride in our company to simply "let it go." People trust us to
provide quality and caring service, so I'm writing to share more about
our company as well as information that should have been included in the
report.
I grew up in Sacramento, and with a background in recreation and my
friend Russ Kuhn, we opened the first California Family Fitness twenty
years ago. Our commitment and philosophy to this day is to provide
fitness facilities for the entire family to enjoy. Everyday, Russ and I
take great pride watching a great team of employees carry on the
dedication and pleasure of providing a great service to our members.
Today, I enjoy taking my own grandchildren to our childcare facilities
and observe the caring staff with our little ones and their parents. It
is so wonderful and gratifying to see two decades of service provide
people of all ages a healthy environment.
The safety of all our members and employees has always been top priority
for us. That is why all employees have been required to go through
etensive CPR training as well as training to use Automatic External
Defibrillators (AEDs). As a company, we provided AEDs in all our
facilities two years before it became state law. It is critical all of
our employees receive proper training and undergo background checks. All
background checks are conducted through Live Scan.
CFF staff and representatives provided these facts about our employees,
the training they undergo and the background checks that are performed,
but the KCRA reporter did not include this important information.
We are proud of our family team of employees who work very hard to
provide the best services for our members and their children. The
accident that occurred was unfortunate, and something our entire team
feels badly about. We take it personally because we care. I am very
disappointed that KCRA left out the great efforts that we take to keep
our clubs safe, and our members happy. Additionally, I am extremely
disappointed that the report did not include our team's genuine sense of
remorse and sorrow about the fact that a child was hurt.
Here are the facts about the accident:
The child tripped and fell while playing in our Kidz Klub. A staff
member was only a few feet away, and the employee immediately picked up
the child to provide comfort and then noticed the severity of the
injury. The childcare manager then came to the child's aid, and the
father was paged several times. When the father finally came into the
room, our team asked if he wanted us to call 911. We did so immediately
when asked. Following the accident, we placed several follow-up calls to
the child's parents to check on the welfare of the child. Our follow up
efforts also included letting the father review the video from our
surveillance cameras.
The KCRA report suggested that the parents' motivation was that they
only wanted to prevent this from happening to other children. Excluded
was the fact that the family is seeking a substantial amount of money in
damages. That information is relevant and crucial, giving viewers a more
accurate perspective of the family's motivation.
We appreciate that the news media wants to cover stories they believe
are controversial or in the public interest, and we believed that the
reporter would present all the facts so viewers could draw their own
conclusions. Disappointingly, this irresponsible report falls far short
of the journalistic standards we have a right to expect from what was
promoted to viewers as an investigative report.
Russ and I want everyone to know that we deeply care about the welfare
of all our members, their children and our employees. Like a family, our
team was very concerned to see one of our little ones hurt. Our staff is
very close to all of the children who belong to Kidz Klub, and we care
for them greatly."
Larry Gury, Co-Founder, Co-CEO, California Family Fitness
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