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Friday, October 8, 1999
Balloons a Treat for Kids
By Rebecca Roybal
Journal Staff Writer
Balloonists may feel on top of the world when they take a ride in a hot-air balloon.
But for kids, being surrounded by the colorful giants and eating pepperoni pizza for breakfast is even better.
"This is a real treat," said Quinn Carrillo, 9. "With two more dollars, I can get another pizza (slice)."
For Laguna Elementary students in Laguna Pueblo, school was in session during the fiesta's Special Shapes mass ascension at the Kodak Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Seven bus loads brought in all students, staff and some parents for an on-location learning experience Thursday. Students carried handmade booklets, filling them with names of balloonists, visitors from out-of-state and other information. They even interviewed two monks from Thailand.
Veronica Purley, who was chaperoning a four-pack of students, said more than 500 people left the school at 5:15 a.m. to catch the fiesta.
The fiesta park on Thursday was swarming with parents and students, many of whom had the day off for Albuquerque Public Schools' fall break.
Tom Garrity, spokesman for the fiesta, said the morning wasn't the "blowout" forecasters predicted. Competitions were canceled, and pilots decided whether or not to brave ground winds at 12 miles per hour, or 10 knots, and 15 knots at 600 feet, Garrity said.
Winds gusting to 20 mph later in the day did postpone the Special Shapes Glowdeo until 7 p.m. today, he said.
Though the morning ascension didn't take off quite as planned, pilots inflated balloon shapes such as a frog prince, a dinosaur and a clown, keeping the scores of children in curious amazement.
Pilots and crews handed out balloon trading cards to youngsters.
Children swarmed around the Cuddles the She Creature balloon for free monster Halloween masks.
Across the park, four youngsters gladly wiggled along a deflated, rolled up balloon trying to get all the air out. The Yellow Freight hot air balloon didn't go up, but that didn't bother the young volunteers.
Sisters Laura Spohn, 10, Shannon Spohn, 8, their brother Daniel Spohn, 11, and their friend Jasmine Marquardt, 7, said waking up at 4:30 a.m. wasn't easy, but it beat going to school.
"We stopped people from getting on the tarp," said Daniel Spohn, a student at LBJ Middle School. "We handed out cards and pushed out the air (from the balloon)."
Five Key Club students from Sandia High arrived before 4 a.m. to volunteer for taking tickets and directing traffic. When they found out the posts had been filled, they cruised the main strip in search of the best breakfast burrito.
Pamela Castillo, 8, and her grandfather, Raul Rodriguez, traveled directly from Fort Worth, Texas, with family and friends to the fiesta grounds in a recreational vehicle. A sleepy-eyed Castillo, who was on break from school in Fort Worth, proudly flashed a trading card of a Garfield hot-air balloon. It was her first visit, but it was Rodriguez's ninth visit.
"Every trip we make out is like a new experience," he said.
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