Our church, St. Ignatius of Loyola in Buchanan Valley has had a picnic for well over one hundred years. Three years ago, my dad decided that he wanted to help out. He worked in the kitchen. Working in the kitchen was not a good fit for me. I don’t like handling various foods, as well as raw meat. I did have an interest in selling balloons which was something that they sold years ago, but had been discontinued. I got permission to sell them, and was set up in a pavilion close by where the food tickets were sold and the dining hall. Though I sold balloons there, I felt it would be better to have our booth in the section with the other children’s attractions.
This year the picnic was run by a different person. After the evening mass for The Assumption on August 14th, I was approached about selling balloons at the picnic. I asked where they would put me as recently, I heard that my other spot was being repurposed. The response was next to the face painting. I agreed as I enjoy selling helium balloons at the picnic, and I thought that I had a good opportunity to sell balloons with the new location. Balloons don’t generate much money because we only charge a dollar, but the kids like them and they add to the fun of the picnic. We donate the helium and supplies, so all the money goes to the church.
This year Dad helped me with my booth. The night before the picnic we stopped up to find where our booth was. This time it appeared that we had a great location. The day of the picnic, Dad brought some of the supplies up early. When Dad and I went up later to finish setting up, and I saw the grounds around where our booth was, I was really convinced we had a good spot. We were at a spot where we would get more foot traffic and had better visibility which ultimately led to more sales this time.
The booth was next to the face painting which was good, since it would help generate customers. Across from us was a stand that sold drinks that was very convenient. We also weren’t far from the hamburger stand. It smelled so good!
Anyway, we set up the table in our space. I pumped up four balloons with regular air to attach to the table. These balloons were meant give attention to our booth. Also on the table was a sign that said, “Balloons.” We had three bags of balloons, some string, and a helium tank on the table.
I felt that the day started slowly to my surprise. It was a little while before my first sales. In fact, Dad was away from the booth when I made my first two sales. A former religious education student of mine and a friend of hers were my first two customers. When I asked what color balloon they wanted, I was told teal. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any teal balloons up there as I didn’t have any nine-inch teal balloons. So, the girls chose purple balloons.
Dad returned to the booth and I made one more sale before it got slow again. Eventually an adult parishioner that Dad knew stopped by and asked about the Knight’s of Columbus Table. Though Dad didn’t help him find their table, he did convince him to buy a red balloon. He then tied it to his wrist and walked around the grounds with it.
It was a running joke that when Dad would get up and leave the booth that is when I’d make a sale, since it seemed like at the beginning that was primarily the way it was working. Eventually I bought a hamburger and fries for lunch. During lunch, I actually had to stop eating to make some sales as well. But that was fine, since what I wanted to do there was sell balloons. That’s why I went to the picnic.
They had live music. To appeal to a wide variety of people, they played various styles. I enjoyed their country songs. Their country band entertained me during the slow periods when I wasn’t selling much. Sometimes while I listened, I would stomp my feet to it. They also played rock music which my dad liked.
Something that caught my attention was when the group did a combination of two songs. They mixed together the Christian country song, One Day at a Time, with a parody song, One Pound at a Time. The parody was hilarious, and the two songs were blended together nicely. The Christian Country song, I thought was very appropriate to be played at a church event.
The balloons were a big hit! Children would often go from the face painting stand to our booth to buy a balloon. Other times they would buy a balloon from us and then go to the face painting stand and sat holding their balloon while they got their face painted. The kids would rip and tear through the grounds with their balloons. They’d swing them around. Some would take them on the swing set. One hit her sister in the face with her balloon.
It was also difficult sometimes to keep up with the demand. We only had so many strings made at a time. We brought string, and I held the string at the one end of a yard stick and my dad would cut the strings to size. He then created slipknots in the strings so that the child could slip the balloon on his or her wrist. Due to the time it took to make them, we only had about eight strings ready at a time. Another common occurrence was the need to prepare two balloons at a time since many customers came in pairs.
The balloons we had this year were smaller than those Mom and I sold the last two years. During the previous two picnics I sold twelve-inch helium balloons. The balloons were definitely a nice size, but used too much helium. Those years we ran out of helium part way through and had to close early. Not this year! This year’s balloons were nine inch in size. Definitely smaller, but the children seemed to love them. I felt they were large enough and helium is expensive. The balloons were pearlescent, meaning that they were nice and shiny. They were nice pretty colors. Of course, I liked the green ones.
The blue balloons seemed to be one of the popular ones. I had trouble keeping enough of them. People made comments on how pretty they thought the blue balloons were. My parents also liked them, of course, blue is their favorite color.
A girl once stopped at our booth, and asked for a pink balloon. So, I took a pink balloon out of the bag and started to blow it up. It was inflating slowly. The girl then went to get her face painted. My dad noticed that her balloon was dragging on the ground. He called it a “ground burner.” I noticed it as well and we switched helium tanks. I went over to the face painting stand, and said to the girl that if she wanted, she could come back, and I would replace her balloon for free since the problem was that I had to switch helium tanks, and didn’t know it at the time.
Last year my family discovered that the picnic had delicious peaches. Dad wanted to buy some. During a lull at the booth, he went to the area where they sold fruit. He asked if he could buy peaches with money in his hand. The worker, said that the only way he would give Dad peaches would be if he won them on the wheel. Apparently, the peaches along with apples and other fruit were part of the fruit wheel. Dad bought a few spins but didn’t win.
A funny boy came to the booth. Like most of the children he came and bought a balloon. What was different was that he came back a little later. He lay three one-dollar bills on the table. We said he only needed a dollar as that was the cost of balloons. He said that he wanted three balloons. He won some extra cash playing a game where the person spun a wheel, and decided that he wanted to spend his winnings on helium balloons!
Once a parent came to buy balloons for their two children who were somewhere else on the grounds. On the spot the parent had to decide what color their kids would like. For their daughter they selected a pink balloon and a purple balloon. For the son, a red balloon and a blue balloon. Later I saw that the kids had their balloons as they were on the swings.
When we set the table up in the morning, we attached a few air-filled balloons onto it to get attention to our booth. The balloons looked nice when we first put them there. As the day went on the latex started to oxidize and they got a funny texture. A mom brought her little girl over to the booth who was attracted to the yellow balloon attached to the table. The girl tried to grab at the balloon. The mother wanted to buy her a “better helium-filled balloon.” After finding out that I should inflate an orange balloon for the child, I said as I was inflating it how this balloon was going to be nicer than the ones on the table. I continued saying this as I brought over the balloon. I let the kid have both the helium balloon and the balloon from the table. There was another similar situation with a purple balloon. At this point in time the balloons on the table weren’t particularly nice anymore and what was I going to do with some dilapidated, funky feeling balloons at the end of the show? And the two kids who were given the balloons from the table totally enjoyed them anyway.
In another instance with these “attention getter” balloons, a little kid was trying to take these balloons from the table. The child’s parent asked for a helium balloon for the kid who remained interested in the “attention getter” balloons. After a failed attempt of giving the balloon to the kid, the owner attached the helium balloon to the family’s dog. Apparently, the dog was wandering off, because I heard that the balloon was being put on the dog so that they could keep tabs on the location of their dog. I thought of Mom, who loves to look at the dogs that people bring to these events. I care about selling the balloons, and she cares about the dogs.
Mom was able to join us soon after and saw the dog with the red balloon attached. She and Dad went to purchase peach sundaes for us. They were huge and delicious! Also, since it was towards the end of the Buchanan Valley picnic, she also later went up and was actually able to buy some peaches. The fruit for the fruit wheel that was left over, was what a person could buy at the end of the picnic for a reduced price. What a bargain!
Eventually, we had to close. The picnic was over, but we still had helium left! Remember how I was selling smaller balloons this time? Using the nine-inch balloons allowed us to stay open the full duration of the picnic. As I mentioned earlier, I thought the balloons were nice. Here’s the kicker for those (if any) who thought the balloons were too small. The balloons we used……. were the ones that came with the tank. They were made to be used with helium! Either way they were well enjoyed, and lasted throughout the picnic.
I felt like we did really well this year at the picnic, better than the last two years. I sold more balloons than before, and was able to remain open until the end of the picnic.
I was happy with the results of the picnic this year. I sold a lot of balloons, many more than other years. The children seemed to really enjoy the balloons. I hope the church was happy with the money I made for them and the children for whom memories were made.
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