Lighter than Air

Balloons everywhere!

Keep your eyes on the road!

I nearly wrecked the car on Friday morning.  After I dropped Steve off to manage the score table at the Silver State Water Polo Tournament, I turned onto Virginia Street toward campus and was greeted by Darth Vader, Smokey the Bear, a strawberry, a ladybug, a goldfish, a globe, a train, Pencil Boy, and many teardrop rainbows suspended way up into the sky.  At this point, I had to slam on the brakes and slightly swerve around a red pick-up truck.

Tissue Paper Balloon Race Volunteers.

     I was headed to Rancho San Rafael Park to volunteer at the Great Reno Balloon Race, so there is no reason I should have been shocked to see a bunch of hot air balloons.  But the sky was so blue, the shapes were so large, the balloons were so plentiful and graceful and colorful that I completely forgot that I was in a moving vehicle.  I pulled my focus back onto the road and managed to drive safely to the park where I met nearly a dozen University of Nevada swimmers.

     The swimmers ran the Tissue Paper Balloon Race, an activity for third through sixth graders.  Silver chimneys about three feet tall had been set up in the park near the real balloons’ take-off area.  In sets of two or three, swimmers manned the chimneys and carefully heated the children’s balloons to just the right temperature and inflation for lift-off.  The children then madly chased their balloons across the field.

JoJo helping third graders.

     The children had made their balloons in school from tissue paper and, in some unfortunate cases, Duct tape.   The ones who closely followed the balloon plans distributed by the event director were hopping and pointing and shrieking while the ones whose balloons were too heavy or holey dropped their heads and headed to the patching station.   Almost all of the balloons eventually flew at least a little ways, and a few floated all the way over McCarran road to the N.  Some of the balloons were four feet tall and all had names:  Dragon, Rocket Ship, Easter Egg, Sleeping Bag, Duck, Edwin (no explanation provided).

Katie and Lauren with a successful launch.

     The swimmers kept the enthusiasm high with energetic count-downs: “3-2-1 LIFT OFF!”  And they didn’t catch a single balloon on fire which was impressive considering that they had to hold the base of the balloons over a wickedly hot chimney until just before their fingers burst into flames.  In some cases, this meant grasping melting tape while sniffing to detect the first sign of burning tissue paper.  I don’t think anyone—children, teachers, parents, swimmers, other volunteers (coaches)—cried the entire day, which apparently is some sort of record and earned the swimmers “Best Volunteers Ever” praise from the event directors. 

Rachel and Andrea at the water polo tournament.

     

While we launched balloons, a group of swimmers and divers worked at the Silver State Water Polo Tournament at Idlewild Pool.  I have no idea how Steve taught the shifts of six student-athletes to keep the scorebook and run two clocks – one was a shot clock and one was for something else I can’t remember—but he did teach them.  And, like the tissue balloon launch, there were no tears even though officials were yelling and whistles were blowing and water was splashing and the sun was blinding.  Our Wolf Pack ladies stayed calm and focused as they learned a brand new sport quickly under pressure.  As tribute to their performance, we have been invited to work the tournament again next year.  

     If anything, this weekend shows that we have an intelligent, unselfish team and that Reno is far more than a gambling destination.  Between the Great Reno Balloon Race, water polo tournament, and football game, there was a tremendous sense of community and activity…and, hopefully, not too many distracted drivers.