World renown storyteller and communications pro Don Helbig is joining the Sandusky Register in collaboration with the CPFoodBlog to discuss Cedar Point and amusement park related news. His role will be to tell important stories that capture the fun guests experience at America’s Roller Coast and beyond.

It is not often where you run across a legend in any sort of career, let alone have the chance to work with them. We all watch movies and see our favorite actors, but so few of us ever get the chance to work with them. For any guest that has visited Kings Island over the past several decades, more than likely they have encountered Don at some point of their day interacting with guests. It is that energy that made him beloved by thousands of guests and associates as well as a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry.

The Why

Don’s story with Kings Island goes back to the very beginning when the park first opened in 1972. Don grew up in the Cincinnati area, frequenting Coney Island amusement park and eventually Kings Island when it opened. His family would visit Kings Island maybe once or twice a season during the early years.

During the inaugural season, Don’s cousin bet him 50 cents if he would ride The Racer roller coaster with him. Keep in mind Don was nine years old and The Racer was the longest, the fastest, the tallest wooden rollercoaster in existence. The massive white structure to a little kid back than must have been quite intimidating.

Don won the bet and rode a total of 9 times that day (July 11, 1972). By that point a spark had been ignited.

During June of the 1981 season, when Don was 18 years old, he obtained a Kings Island season pass and learned that The Racer roller coaster had a single day park record of 96 rides. Since The Racer offered a four-train operation and shorter lines, it became the ideal candidate to break the record compared to The Beast, which was still only in its third season and routinely had hour plus waits.

He spent nearly every day visiting the park and was determined to see if he could beat that record.

By August 9, 1981, Don obtained 97 rides on The Racer in a single day, breaking the record. In his efforts to capture the title, he had accrued 1,200 rides by the end of the 1981 season.

By the following year, he had beat his own record with 111 rides on The Racer. However, not to be stopped, on September 2, 1987, he set the current record of 112 laps in a single day.

At that point, Don had been keeping track of all his ride counts, and set out to reach of goal of 10,000 rides on The Racer.

From the beginning, Don’s fascination with numbers was carefully documented. Ride associates at The Racer witnessed the number of rides Don was recording and turned them into Kings Island’s public relations department each day. This meticulous documenting of rides allowed the park to promote the milestone achievements as world records for the most non-consecutive rides on the same roller coaster.

After two years of visiting the park, Don had acquired 3,000 rides on The Racer by the end of the 1982 season. He later hit 4,000 rides in 1983 and 5,000 rides on July 17, 1984. It took Don until the 1990 season to finally capture 10,000 rides on The Racer.

Today, Don has rode The Racer 12,073 times. In addition, he has ridden The Beast 3,913 times.

As his numbers continued to grow, his notoriety in the industry became well known. Regularly featured on news outlets, Don’s personality always shined through, building up tremendous respect in the community.

In 2007, Don was hired by Kings Island to run the Public Relations side of the business. After 10 years, Don transitioned to the digital side at Kings Island, where he launched the KI Blog and published over 1,000 stories.

Some highlights of working at Kings Island include the 2008 Robbie Knievel record-breaking motorcycle jump in 2008, bringing the Brady Bunch cast to the park in 2008 and 2013, and the announcements for Diamondback (2009), Banshee (2014) and Mystic Timbers (2016).

Don also assisted with the media day planning of GateKeeper and openings of Valravn and Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point.

Perhaps one of his biggest success stories also goes back to the people he loved the most, the coaster enthusiasts. Don had built what many had called the best coaster event to have ever existed, Coasterstock. The yearly event attracted hundreds of guests from coast-to-coast and internationally to the park for two days of rides, tours, dining and comradery that was second to none. We attended almost every year of the event going back to 2015 and made lifelong friends at the annual “coaster reunion.”

The What

Don and I became friends about 10 years ago shortly after we started the CPFoodBlog. In the lifespan of his career, we were perhaps just a little blip in the radar. However, Don’s career in the amusement park industry was never your textbook example of public relations. His life at amusement parks was born out of a true passion for the environment and the fun we all experience when visiting amusement parks. His desire for riding The Racer over and over again was not necessarily just to satisfy a number, but he truly enjoyed the experience and talking with guests and ride associates. His exemplary personal skills are what got him hired in the industry and why he is so highly respected throughout the community.

We are so excited for this opportunity to bring Don’s expertise to the Sandusky Register.

Don’s ability to story tell brings us excitement as we work towards expanded coverage of Cedar Point at the Sandusky Register.

Don can be found on Twitter and ThemeParksByDon.com and Thing Is I’m A Reds Fan. He can also be heard on the weekly show, The Attractions Group Podcast.