Families of Columbia fly kites
Camren Cross, Recreational Supervisor of the City of Columbia, oversaw Saturday’s kite flying event, which hosted more kids than last year
April 8, 2008
Kansas City resident Walt Lantzy holds a kite string as his grandson, 2-year-old Columbia resident Graham Lantzy, stares up at the kite. Columbia Parks & Recreation hosted the two-hour event.
Ten-year-old Columbia resident Ethan O’Loughlin runs across Douglass Park on Saturday to lift his kite higher into the air. Contests were held for the largest, smallest and highest flying kites.
Columbia College junior Caitlin Cunningham helps Columbia resident Dinis Trindade launch a kite Saturday in Douglass Park. Cunningham volunteered for Columbia College’s education club, Student Leaders Advocating Teacher Excellence, at the event.
Community Recreation Supervisor Camren Cross hands 5-year-old Lilly Wang an assembled kite as her mother Mingjuan Wang watches. Cross spent the afternoon helping children assemble their kites, supervising the event and holding kite-flying contests
Three-year-old Columbia resident Evrim Agca watches as his mother, Cansu Agca, helps him launch a kite Saturday at an event hosted by Columbia Parks & Recreation. The organization provided kites for children to fly on the warm afternoon.
The weekends normally bring kids rushing to the nearest playground, scrambling to the top of the monkey bars or zipping down a twisted plastic yellow slide. But this Saturday, the playground at Douglass Park was toddler free.
Instead of sliding, swinging and climbing, kids gathered on Douglass Park baseball field to fly kites.
After days of rain and overcast skies, Saturday surprised Columbia residents with warm weather, blinding sunlight, a cloudless sky and the perfect amount of wind for kite flying. The small gusts of wind, just enough to add a chill to the warm day, sent kites soaring up into the blue sky.
This year’s kite flying event, hosted by Columbia’s Park & Recreation services, provided families with the perfect Saturday afternoon activity. Starting at noon, families began setting out blankets and pulling out plastic Tupperware filled with the day’s lunch. Parents sat in the outfield and watched as their children raced around the baseball diamond, their kites tumbling behind them, struggling to make it off the ground.
Camren Cross, Recreational Supervisor of the City of Columbia, stood at the top of a small hill watching, blue baseball hat pulled snug over his head, muscled arms folded across his broad chest. Cross smiled as children as young as three ran screaming about on the field in front of him.
The purpose of devoting an afternoon to kite flying is to get families out and doing something together, Cross said.
“Flying kites is something people don’t do anymore.” Cross said, laughing as he talked about walking out of Wal-Mart with an entire shopping cart filled to the brim with kites.
Cross brought between 70 and 80 kites. Some were from last year’s event, but most he bought at Wal-Mart this year.
“Got to stretch the dollar,” Cross said.
Cross piled all the kites on a small table near the field while children scrambled around it looking for the perfect kite. Elmo, the Transformers, Winnie the Pooh, and Hello Kitty soon took to the air, but not without a little difficulty.
Parents helped their children tear away the shiny silver packaging before starting to assemble what would soon become a smiling red Elmo kite, 10-foot-long kite tail included.
Once all plastic tubes were assembled in the right places and Elmo finally took shape, the children were off. They tore off down the field expecting their kites to take off, but most tumbled on the ground behind them. Luckily for these troubled fliers, volunteers from Student Leaders Advocating Teacher Excellence, an education club at Columbia College, were there to help out.
Caitlin Cunningham was one of the volunteers. Cunningham spent her Saturday afternoon at Douglass Park rather than catching up on sleep. Decked in a bright blue T-shirt, she was easy for fliers to pick out of the throngs of other kids.
“It’s an amazing event,” Cunningham said as she watched the children finally succeed in getting their kites air borne. “Even if they don’t get their kites up, they’re still loving it.”
As the wind picked up, more and more kites joined Elmo and Hello Kitty, speckling the afternoon sky with bright green, pink and red kite tails. Children who were still struggling to get their kites up continued battling aerodynamics with surprising determinedness.
“I’ve only seen one kid get frustrated,” Cunningham said laughing. “And he was three.”
The trick to getting a kite in the air differed from flier to flier. Cross said patience was the key.
Cunningham advised a more specific tip to kids who struggled catching the wind.
“Keep a short string and keep it tight,” Cunningham said.
By 1 p.m. dozens of kites were in the air, and shouts and laughter echoed across Douglass Field as kids ran back and forth, kite tails fluttering in the wind.
One boy who had just received his kite from Cunningham was on the field, kite flying in no time.
“That boy is flying a kite!” Cunningham said.
With so many kids gathered on the field, it was only a short time before a few tangles brought down a kite or two. A Transformers kite got caught up with Elmo at one point, sending both kites tumbling down.
One kite, giant compared to the others, was in the shape of a full-blown jet. With a blazing blue paint job and a decent wingspan, the kite was something to see, and watch out for. Several participants in Saturday’s event had to duck to keep from getting a quick smack in the face from the jet kite as it threatened to smash to the ground at any moment.
As children and parents ran around Douglass Field, laughs and cheers articulated the enjoyment these families were having. Cross weaved in and out of the kite flying madness, capturing the scene with the camera slung around his neck.
Listening to the cheers and laughs, Cross realized he had yet to hear a “crier,” as he called the type of children who cry about their kites.
“Normally there are at least three criers,” Cross said.
This year’s kite day brought enough people out to Douglass Park that the baseball field was nearly full.
“This is a bigger turn out than last year,” Cross said.
Cross remembered there being about 30 people at least year’s event.
One small tyke who never seemed to stop running was Sire Butler. At four years old, this was his first time flying at kite on his own, his mother, Marshelle Butler said. Butler raced in and out of the other kids, sending his kite soaring into the sky and then crashing back down.
Half the time he didn’t even have a kite with him. Butler seemed content to just run through the grass laughing and pulling at his pants that kept sliding down.
For two hours kites littered the sky with pink, green and orange kite tails. For Cross, the event was a great way of providing families with an activity they could do together.
“It never hurts to give back to the community,” Cross said.
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