Roller Coasters and a Leap of Faith

1985-Our-first-JointAfter 18 years dabbling in the Carnival Business with the PNE and our days with West Coast Amusements, in 2001 my husband Joe and I took a huge leap of faith. We stepped right up and purchased five Amusement Rides to accompany our existing Carnival Games Company (then called JBM Enterprises). It was this decision that changed our lives forever!

Just one year later, we held our first contest to name our company (which was won by my late Brother). With the new name in hand we had a logo designed and Shooting Star Amusements was born.

The five carnival rides we purchased a decade ago were the Ferris Wheel, The Lightening Bolt, the Titanic Slide, the Go Gator Roller Coaster and the Moonwalk.

This was the biggest and scariest investment of our lives. Using our Home as collateral for a loan, we took the chance – we believed.

In fact, we were so committed to being successful at this venture that we bought five more rides and a Cotton Candy stand too! A total of ten carnival rides arrived at the Hyack Festival and Shooting Star Amusements went on to play it’s first full Festival.

We renewed the existing contracts held by Castle Amusements when they retired. We had some great events! The Hyack Festival, Lumby Days Festival, Penticton Peach Festival, Quesnel’s Billy Barker Days, the Powell River Seafair, the Pt. Grey Fiesta and the City of Surrey’s Canada Day. We are very happy to say we have renewed these contracts year after year through the last Decade!

Hyak-Fest-Air-View-1-300x171As time moved on word traveled quickly! Our reputation for providing a fully amazing carnival midway experience traveled throughout the Fairs and Festivals in British Columbia, into Alberta and all the way to Yellowknife! We were invited to provide the midway at some of British Columbia’s largest fairs and festivals. Shooting Star Amusements became the preferred Carnival Company at many events!

Today we have almost doubled our event schedule and nearly doubled our ride inventory! We have expanded our offices, our shop and our storage buildings! We are growing our show!

SSA-10-Year-Anniversary-Logo-150x150As we are continue to go through our archives and reminisce with our long term employees, we can’t help but realize we not only had fun back then, but we had so much fun we are still doing this today and plan to continue on for many years to come!

“To love what you do and feel that it matters – how could anything be more fun?”-Catherine Graham