Amateur photographers, student writers and people checking items off their bucket lists all responded to the Sun Journal’s Great Falls Balloon Festival essay contest.

Lucinda Coombs added a balloon ride to her bucket list several years ago after seeing festival balloons “drift silently up the Androscoggin River at sunset,” she wrote.

As she watched, “I’ve envisioned the peace, the vista, the thrill of riding high above the world.” And, like many others who responded to the contest, she wished to float through the clouds.

Nearly 40 people responded to the Sun Journal’s essay contest, each seeking a chance to win a ride in a balloon and write about it for our Sunday, Aug. 18, newspaper.

We received essays that included photos, contained original poetry and one written on stationery decorated with balloons.

Several people wrote believing that if they won, and were able to give the gift of a balloon ride to a former lover, they would be able to rekindle the romance. Even more people believed that being aloft in a balloon could conquer their fear of heights.

We heard from people who wanted to float with their elderly parents, and from others who wanted to fly with their children. Terri and Scott Ashton of Sabattus hoped to take flight so they could, in the years to come, share memories of their adventure with their twins, who are 3 years old.

Jan Bunford, who has ridden in a balloon before, wrote about how nice it would be to have her husband share that experience with her. “Living in Lewiston, we’ve been to every Great Falls Balloon Festival. We’ve been up at sunrise to take pictures, gotten our shoes soaked at Lewiston High chasing balloons through their fields, seen our granddaughter perform cheers with the balloons glowing in the background.”

Bunford also said the lawn chairs at Simard/Payne Memorial Park, the music and the fun of “eating cotton candy like big kids” while standing together on the bridge between the Twin Cities” is all part of the fun of this annual August event.

We heard from Kathryn Sturgis, who is pursuing a degree in special education at the University of Maine at Farmington, who wanted to share the dream of flying with her boyfriend, an engineering major at the University of Maine in Orono. “We are both trying to fulfill our dream of graduating with the degrees of our choosing and doing what we love for the rest of our lives,” she wrote.

Our winning writer is Sara Sands of Minot, who is about to enter her fourth year of college, and who has been to every Great Falls Balloon Festival. At 21 years old — the same age as the festival — she doesn’t know a Lewiston that doesn’t include what she calls this “majestic” celebration.

Her essay, below, is a heart-warming tribute to her family, to her father and to the memories created through a lifetime of watching balloons rising in the Twin Cities.

Sands and her father are set to fly on Friday morning, and she will write about their experience for this Sunday’s Sun Journal.

*    *   *

A Father-Daughter Tradition

Every August, since I can remember, my dad has burst into my room at the crack of dawn.

“C’mon Blondie, it’s time to go watch the balloons take off!”

We jump into our unofficial chase car and drive to the launch site.

My dad is like a kid in a candy store, full of excitement. He has studied the schedule of events and knows every balloon that will be featured, from the Monster Truck to the Purple People Eater, and everything in between.

We watch as the crews prepare the balloons for flight, and listen for the sound of the burners as they fill the balloons with air and they drift off into the blue morning sky. What a majestic sight!

When we’ve watched them all take off, we return to the chase vehicle and drive through town, trying to follow them and hoping to see one land.

My dad says “some day, Blondie, you and I are going to take a balloon ride!”

To win this contest for my dad would mean the world to me. He has sacrificed so much for his family, always working two jobs to make ends meet.

I’m 21 now, and entering my fourth year of college, but this is a tradition I still look forward to.

To go up with my dad would be a memory I would cherish for life!

I would wake him at the crack of dawn, “C’mon Dad, it’s ‘someday’ and we’re going for a balloon ride!”

— Written by Sara (Blondie) Sands for her dad, Greg Sands

Copy the Story Link