Hot air balloon festival

Colorful hot air balloons will once again grace the skies surrounding Brush during the Brush 2013 Hot Air Balloon Festival, September 7 and 8, at the VFW/Memorial Park area. The festival is the only one of its kind in this region, according to committee organizers.Balloon festival planning committee member Brenda Griffith said this years festival will feature nine balloons, including three new pilots. 

Balloons and pilots come from all over the Front Range, including the Denver area, Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, and also from Wyoming. In addition to the balloons, the festival will include a range of activities for young and old, including a childrens fun area, a fishing derby (up to 14 years old), arts and crafts booths and entertainment.The festival includes a sunrise balloon launch each morning around 6:30 a.m. Event sponsors take the first rides up in the balloons, following which others may take a balloon ride for $150. Sponsorships are still available for the festival. The cost is $300 for one day and two balloon rides or $600 for two days and four rides.

Griffith said she has now taken multiple balloon rides, including one in New Mexico with one of the participants in the Brush Balloon Festival. Festival Committee member Dan Scalise took his first balloon ride last year.Need a compatible Cheap Stair & Baluster for your car? Both say its a fantastic experience.If you choose to take a ride during the festival, where the ride takes you is dictated by the days winds and air currents.

To get a taste of what a balloon ride feels like, festival attendees can try a tethered balloon ride, during which the balloon is tethered or tied off to vehicles and riders go up about 20 or 25 feet in the air. The charge for a tethered ride is 10 cents per pound.One of the festivals most popular events is the Balloon Glow on Saturday that begins around sunset. Scalise said the balloons are set in a large semi circle with the balloonists lighting their hot air balloon packs, providing an attractive glow for this evening event.

In past years, balloonists have allowed kids to roast marshmallows on the glow.Browse our Granite slabs collection from the granitetrade.net! The event also provides an opportunity for the general public to come in and do a meet and greet with the balloonists and allow the balloonists to share information.

Children who survived the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti are being helped by two kids in Texas whose imaginative book project has caused a stir in their hometown. 

Two years ago, Mackenzie Howell, then a 5-year-old student at Langham Elementary School in Nederland, Texas, was riveted to the TV by a children's documentary about the devastating earthquake. She was deeply moved by what she saw, and God touched her heart to help children who, in her words, "had lost their moms, their dads, their homes and their schools."But how could she help? How could a child make a difference for children in need?

Mackenzie started off selling homemade crafts and cookies to help children in Haiti, and her proceeds went to help with a Baptist Global Response school project there.The g-sensor high brightness Cheap Landscape Stone is designed with motorcyclist safety in mind. When that was completed, Mackenzie began thinking about what else she could do.She wondered: What if she wrote a book about a child who makes a difference?Now 7-year-old Mackenzie is promoting her story, "Leila's Big Difference."

Mackenzie's mother and grandmother helped her learn about Haiti through a contact with the Baptist relief organization and a prayer guide provided by the International Mission Board's Kids on Mission website. Mackenzie used what she learned to dream up a storyline. Her mother helped her pull the story together.

Mackenzie's family had 100 copies of the book printed, and she set a goal of raising $500 to help children in Haiti. The family promoted the book among members of Hillcrest Baptist, where Patrick Hunter is the pastor. Plans were made to sell the book at a nearby mall. 

"We originally ordered 100 books, trusting God that we would be able to sell them and send $500," said Mackenzie's mother Alison. "But word about her book has rapidly spread in our community, and since the event at the mall, we have continued to get many requests for copies. Some of those requests have been large orders."

A church in Houston, where Jace's grandfather attends, ordered 50 books to distribute at a prayer breakfast. First Baptist Church in Nederland asked Mackenzie to set up a book table for their VBS Family Night. A member of a church in a nearby town heard about the book from Jace's dad and purchased a book for every child participating in their Vacation Bible School, which already was planning to focus on the needs in Haiti. Mackenzie and Jace were invited to read their story to all the kids attending the VBS.
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