Our Mt. Hood Meadows and Cooper Spur Mt. Resort Team is outraged and deeply saddened by the racism, horrific injustices and brutality that persists in our country, brought to the forefront by recent events.
Our Team members predominately come from the local communities of Hood River, Parkdale, Warms Springs, and the villages on the west side of Mt. Hood from Gresham to Government Camp. We also have a large number of team members who live in the Portland metro area. These communities have varying degrees of diversity within their populations which we respect and consider to be one of the many strengths of these communities and of our company. It is essential that we continue to provide opportunities, enrichment and services to these communities that are inclusive and based on fairness.
Today, 155 years ago, enslaved Africans learned of their emancipation - but it has become painfully clear that racism continues to make the world unsafe and unequal for Black people and people of color. We acknowledge the pain and suffering racism has caused - and we are determined to become a part of the solution.
While these issues of injustice have existed much longer than any of us have been alive and longer than our company has existed, we see this as a call to action and opportunity for us to get involved by reevaluating our own practices and striving for greater social justice within our organization. Being upset and outraged will not be enough to affect meaningful change, we need to focus that energy towards a long-term sustainable effort to root out injustice and create equality.
We are not a perfect company. We are, however, a learning organization. And so our first step is to listen. We have met with different groups within our company, conducted internal Town Halls, and have engaged a justice reform consultant to help us through the process of listening, learning, and developing actionable and measurable plans. We are on a lengthy, yet critical journey together to become a more inclusive and diverse company that consistently operates with equality and justice. That is how we can create the long-term sustained change that is needed to resolve the current societal injustices.
Once we assess and then establish our plan, we will openly report on it, to our team and publicly. We believe Black Lives Matter and seek a world where Black lives are no longer systematically and unjustly targeted.
We are not the first company to speak out on this issue. We want our actions to support our words. This is the first of several announcements we will be making to report on our progress.