Night Flights

I had my first night flight yesterday, Thursday when I volunteered at the Balloon site from 7:00 - 10:00 pm, yesterday, Thursday 31 July 2008.

The evening started off with an exciting game of frisbee with a group of Boy Scouts - Troop 604, if I remember it right. The Visitor's Center was crowded and so Monica and I (invited to do so by the Balloon staff) took the energetic boys outside to play with their OC Balloon beach balls (giveaways) and frisbee with us. The troop leader thanked us quite a few times for playing with the kids even though we didn't play that long. Their wait was only about 15 minutes or so! Btw, the OCGP balloon blowup beach balls are a really hot item that everybody, young and old, want so much that midway in the evening we ran out of them.

In the morning, I'd been advised to let the Balloon staff handle registrations and help out only when there's lines/crowds inside the Visitor Center. In the evening, since it seemed crowded I initially helped out but was able to leave soon. I spent most of my time talking to park visitors, answering their questions, doing mini-presentations of the Park. I went up and down in the balloon (twice during different times in the evening) and tried to familiarize myself with the night time landscape. Finally, I encouraged visitors to complete the surveys. I had started doing this in the morning and was pleasantly surprised by how many people took the time to complete them, even though it was a bit difficult (no tables close by and although I'd brought 3 or 4 pens, I didn't have a clipboard or anything like that). I didn't count or read the survey responses but I think I must have got more than 20 completed surveys in the evening.

I had started to hand out the surveys because in talking to people I found that they had no clear idea of what the preview park offered. Most came for balloon rides - they seemed to think that was the only attraction - and left. When I gave them the survey, often while they were waiting for the balloon ride, they started to read it. Then, many got interested and started asking questions about the Preview Park and the summer cultural programming. Where are the chess tables? What are the saturday concerts? They started to read the educational panels in the shade structures and try out the lily pad tables and various benches scattered around.

While the majority of whom I asked completed the surveys, mostly, people like to talk. I remember one party of four, grandmother, mother, with a daughter in Northwood High School and aunt(?): they loved everything about the park - the benches everywhere, the feel of the grass, the lights, and the trash receptacles. I encouraged the high school teen to visit the OCGP website and volunteer. Another party that made an impression on me was a fairly large group of about 5 or 6 hearing-impaired adults and 1 or 2 teenagers along with about 4 small kids who weren't. Mishal, the pilot handled this beautifully. She asked for a volunteer interpreter for the group and one of the children (the oldest boy of probably 8 maybe 10 years) did so. Anyway, the kids had so many questions about the park and were so interested in the saturday concerts which they would then share with the adults and teens. In general, when I was on the balloon rides, I noticed that kids often had more questions than the adults. Can we see the Disneyland fireworks from the Balloon was a favorite question and in fact, some visitors timed their visit for this.

New staffers I met today include Kevin (another Northwood High graduate and balloon staffer) and the Operations Manager Rod Cooper (who'd come with his wife around 8:30 pm). Melissa also came by with the new set of Ambassadors she was training and there were two people I knew there! It was great to see Melissa - she gave me my photo id and Great Park Bucks (more about this later). It was good to see our colleagues and Ambassadors Ryan and Jon, Balloon staffers Moose, Heather, Monette, Michelle, and pilots Mishal and Gary. Monica had baked brownies for us all and they were a hit with everybody - thank you, Monica! Amazingly, the balloon rides stopped promptly by 10 pm. I went up in the balloon's last flight which had been timed perfectly to come down and close out a wonderful night at the Great Park for me :).