Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008

 Snoopy was represented. And Cinderella! A few sharks and dragons and plenty of butterflies, too. All were there, emblazoned on kites at Garden Springs Elementary for the school’s sixth annual Kite Day. 

  Some of the students’ kites were homemade, others were store-bought. But all of them elicited sunny smiles and cheers as kids took off running and kites took flight on the baseball field behind the school.

  “I always enjoy doing it. It’s a lot of fun,” said Byron Bell, a member of the KICK (Kitefliers In Central Kentucky) club, who helped with Kite Day.

  Bell, a materials engineer at Lexmark, has come to Garden Springs for several years to share his love of and knowledge of kites, of which he has about 50.

  Students piled into the gym for a short show-and-tell with “the kite man” before heading out to the ball field. And Bell did not disappoint – displaying various styles and types of kites, from a simple one he made out of white wrapping paper to a huge, star-shaped nylon kite with a 25-foot tail. He also brought along a couple of multi-colored box kites and a huge American flag delta kite that really impressed the kids.

  Other crowd favorites included an eagle kite made partly of bamboo strips and the ever-popular Chinese dragon kite, which stretched out nearly the width of the basketball court. Kindergartener Emily Hacker held the hand-painted, papier-mache dragon head as Bell uncoiled the kite. He noted that it might seem fragile, but it has lots of surface area to provide lift.

  Sometimes Bell also goes into a little history lesson, mentioning such familiar names as Ben Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell and Buffalo Bill Cody. Yes, Buffalo Bill. He designed a kite train big enough to lift people into the air and tried to sell it to the Army as a scout vehicle, Bell said.

  The teachers at Garden Springs also incorporate kites into their classroom activities – in math, science, art, technology and P.E.

  “It all began when we made paper kites in art class, and there was one particular student who informed me that he had never had a kite in his entire life, and you could see the spark in his eyes,” said art teacher LaNora Long.

  “A light came on in my head, and I thought, ‘What about a Kite Day for the whole school?’ I took the idea to my principal, and he was on board with the idea. As fate would have it, our secretary at the time came across fliers on how to incorporate kites in the classroom, and she passed that on to me. The rest is history.”

  Besides Bell, other Kite Day guests have included enthusiasts from the Cardome Centre in Georgetown and from The Aviation Museum of Kentucky. But no doubt the best part is when the kids’ own kites soar into the piercing blue sky.

  “It is such a beautiful sight to see all those kites in the air,” Long said.