Hot air balloons will be lifting off this weekend for a good cause at Southern Hills Hospital during its Balloon Festival benefiting the High School to Healthcare Scholarship Fund through the Public Education Foundation.
Ten hot air balloons are expected to participate in the event, which also includes carnival rides, face painting and food vendors.
The three-day event, whose sponsors include Greenspun Media Group, begins at 6 a.m. Friday and runs through Sunday night at the corner of Sunset and Fort Apache roads. Admission is free.
Organizers encourage visitors to approach the balloon baskets to ask crews questions and take pictures.
“I have learned a lot about hot air ballooning being around them over the last few years, and still every time I get up close to one it is amazing,” said Joyce Goedeke, vice president of marketing and public relations at Southern Hills Hospital, which helped start the balloon festival in 2011.
Hot air balloon rides are $250 per person and can last 30 to 60 minutes. Tethered balloon rides will also be available for $10 per person, where passengers can soar 60-70 feet in the air in a balloon that is anchored by ropes.
“It’s quite amazing,” Goedeke said. “It is so relaxing, to be honest with you. The feeling that you get when you get to see these things inflate and launch is incredible.”
Weather permitting, the balloons will launch from 7 to 8 a.m. each day, but the carnival rides and food vendors will stay open as late as 11 p.m.
There will also be a balloon glow on Friday and Saturday night at 6 p.m. when the balloons remain grounded and perform a light show for spectators.
“The pilots coordinate their burners so it basically looks like a flickering candlelight show,” Goedeke said. “It is an amazing visual experience. People will come early and stake their spot out and sort of tailgate until the light show starts.”
Proceeds benefit high school students in Nevada interested in the health care field through the High School to Healthcare scholarship, as well as the Public Education Foundation.
Last year’s event raised about $28,000 and awarded five students $1,000 each for four years in college toward their health care education.
“We want to be able to help students who are heading into that field because these young people are going to be taking care of us some day and we want to keep them here in Nevada,” Goedeke said.