This year’s Festival was better than we could’ve ever imagined.  We had approximately 30 balloons in attendance with 4 special shapes, “Annie” the Lady Bug, “Gus T Guppy”, “American Flag” (sponsored by NBT Bank) and our very own “Clown-N-Around.”  

Friday’s launch at SUNY Adirondack was a great success. The evening started with a ribbon cutting ceremony with the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce, representative from SUNY Adirondack, Todd and his team members, twin Scott and girlfriend Christina. The ribbon was cut, the cameras flashed, and the ribbon was presented to the team as a keepsake for success for years to come. What once seemed to be a dream of a little boy wasn’t a dream anymore…

That dream became a reality the evening of Friday September 10^th as Todd inflated his balloon, “SunBurst” on the grounds of the SUNY Adirondack campus, where he once watched the balloons launched himself as a child. He was the first of many to fly off commencing the start of the weekend activities. As he drifted away with the winds he looked back at the campus to see all his fellow pilots inflate and launch with him. He could see SUNY Adirondack’s student government’s merchandise stand selling his branded t-shirts to spectators that were there to watch his team’s event and could see his father on the ground looking up telling spectators around him, “that’s my son.” All the hard work that had been going on throughout the year seemed at times overwhelming, but that moment made it all worth it. Todd had set out to do his own thing several years ago, and never thought it would’ve grown to what it is today in such a short period of time. The college was excited to have the event back and the community seemed to be just as supportive. Hopefully that evening was just the beginning to a long relationship over the years.

Saturday morning the festivities continued but were moved to Kingswood Golf Course in Hudson Falls, NY. The Kent family has been great supporters of ballooning and without them that weekend wouldn’t have been possible. The news must have caught on because there was already a line of cars filled with spectators hoping to park soon to ensure they could get a good spot to watch the launch before the sun had even risen. SUNY Adirondack’s merchandise stand was up and ready to raise money for their yearly events. There were vendors lined up alongside the roadway, selling hot air balloon rides, festival remembrance items, face painting, airbrush tattoos by the Artbucket, taking canned goods as donations for the local food pantry, a full fledged concession stand by Ostrander Concessions, fresh squeezed lemonade and kettle corn too! At first the fogged seemed as though it might ground the launch but as the morning went on and the sun started to heat up the fog was lifted and the launch went on as scheduled. During the day there was a Bounce House supplied by SunKiss Ballooning, live radio from FROGGY 107.1 and helicopter rides by Heli Flights. The grounds of the golf course were packed with people as they lingered around for the evening launch. The SunKiss Team went about doing their busy day not noticing that the size of the crowd had nearly triple since the morning launch. A brief glance at the parking lot showed it packed full with cars and trail of even more up the roadside for as far as the eye could see. The evening launch went on without a glitch and the crowd roared as the balloons launched. The American Flag, sponsored by NBT Bank, launched after its musical introduction of God Bless America provided by Premier Sound. Later that evening, back at the Land Mark Motor Inn, the pilots were presented with a private musical performance by Richie Ortiz.  It was a great way to end a very long day.

Sunday morning the excitement still went on with the morning launch. It was the last hurrah for the weekend with rain in the forecast. The flight was slow, calm and peaceful…the perfect ending to a perfect weekend.

The SunKiss Team was very proud of their event and can’t thank the supporters of it enough. The team took a little boy’s dream, added some elbow grease, teamwork, community support and made that dream come true…

Keep your eyes and ears open for 2011…you never know what we will come up with next! Check out our media exposure links below:

http://poststar.com/news/local/article_492ad55c-bd48-11df-9028-001cc4c03286.html

http://poststar.com/news/local/article_58788e82-aa42-11df-829c-001cc4c002e0.html

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http://poststar.com/image_693e023d-5253-5485-b5b3-1e890a1ee354.html

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http://poststar.com/image_35b480d3-4e07-5b5d-a224-471675c0e628.html

http://poststar.com/news/local/article_2861a526-bb81-11df-b9fa-001cc4c002e0.html