This past Tuesday, October 4, 2018 the Grinnell Rotary Club gathered at the Westside Family Restaurant for their weekly meeting. The highlight of this meeting was to re-cap the Kites over Grinnell Event that occurred on September 29, 2018. Bruce Blankenfeld shared photos and indicated that, “we clearly do this for the good of the community. This is an event in which all community members can come out to enjoy watching our students and professional kite fliers from all over the country fly unique kites”. Although cold and potential rain threatened the outdoor event at Ahrens Park, it did not stop the many community members from attending.
The Grinnell Rotary donated the materials for the event for all students with the help from their sponsors.
More than 800 students in Kindergarten through sixth grade participated in building either a sled or diamond designed kite. Farren Johnson, k-4 art teacher and Josh Wardenburg, GMS art teacher invited Rotary, PTO, and members from the community into their classrooms to aide in the construction of the kites. More than 200 students attended the event throughout the day on Saturday to test out their kite flying skills. Games, food, and spectacular kite flying views masked the cold and potential rainy weather.
Professional Kite flyers came in from Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, Texas, Pennsylvania and Minnesota along with our very own kite flyers from Grinnell. The annual event will be held next year on September 28, 2019. We hope that our community will come out to enjoy some spectacular sites!
Janet M. Stutz
Photos were taken by GHS student Rebecka Reed
