By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
For a while on Saturday, it appeared Mother Nature might bring more wet than the advertised water balloon fight.
Well-meaning organizers of what they called the “world’s largest water balloon fight” labored Saturday under gray, even misty, skies to produce a fundraising event to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Didier Jimenez, who orchestrated what he hoped to be a fight featuring 10,000 water balloons, said funds would help children who are terminally ill to experience the magic of the wish program.
Volunteers worked with hoses from the utility building at Singley Park on Woodfern Road to fill hundreds of palm-sized balloons. Carefully, they moved them onto plastic to carry dozens to the playing field where the “fight” would take place.
Publicity said the dousing would take place at 11 a.m., but the balloons didn’t fly until after 1 p.m. when a couple of hundred of people paid the $15 to brave the wait and cool breeze to enjoy a few minutes of spirited, high-energy adrenaline.
Mr. Jimenez set the rules, declaring that full-frontal balloons to the face (aka “the moneymaker”) were out of place, and if someone other than your friend, expect to get hit in return, he said.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants wishes to children who are diagnosed with life threatening medical conditions. In the United States, and its territories, Make-A-Wish grants one wish every 38 minutes.
Bags of goodies that included — what else? — balloons were handed out to the first patrons. Various sponsors, like Alfonso’s Pizza, sold food, and 101.5-FM radio set up its tent and brought live music to entertain the altruists.
