LEWISTON — While sifting through information about this year’s Great Falls Balloon Festival, some fun facts were found about the Wonder Bread balloon that illustrate how small the world really is.
Lewiston and the Wonder Bread balloon, which is new to the festival this year, have a few things in common: A history of hot air balloons and bread-making.
The balloon’s design of red, yellow and blue dots is the same as on the Wonder Bread package. The dots represent hot air balloons in flight.
The Wonder Bread brand was born in 1921 after Elmer Cline, an executive with Taggart Baking Co., was “filled with wonder” by the sight of hundreds of balloons creating a kaleidoscope of color at the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Wonder Bread soon became a common sight in kitchens across the country, making it big in the 1930s when sliced bread became popular.
In 2001, the company got its own hot air balloon to celebrate Wonder Bread’s 80th birthday. The balloon is 90 feet tall, 75 feet wide, and large enough to hold 90,000 basketballs.
Another Lewiston connection: Wonder Bread is owned by the same corporation that owns Lepage Bakeries in downtown Lewiston, which employs hundreds of workers.
That owner is Flowers Foods, one of the largest producers of fresh packaged bakery foods in the country. U.S. Flowers operates bakeries across the country and produces a wide range of breads (Wonder Bread, Nature’s Own and Tastykake.)
The balloon is piloted by Chris Sabia of Kansas City and is on a 16-city tour across the country. In a prepared statement, Sabia said he loves the look of “awe and wonder” on the faces of people below as he lifts off. Piloting the balloon for the bread company is “a dream job.”
He met his wife, Amanda, who was a real estate agent, in 1999 when she was offered a flight with him in the RE/MAX balloon. Since then she’s earned her pilot’s license and travels the country with the Wonder balloon.
(For more information, go to WonderBread.com, Facebook.com/WonderBread or Twitter.com/WonderBread.)
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