At The Taste of the Kingsway Festival this weekend, the kids got helium filled balloons. I was sure to tie these balloons down as there's nothing sadder than a kid watching his or her balloon float up to the heavens. There was one exception to this rule and that was the Inner City Angels Balloon Day we had every year in primary school.
I'm pretty sure the Inner City Angels Balloon Day was a Toronto-wide event, it was certainly an annual event at St. Pius X. Once a year we'd raise money for the Inner City Angels by buying and selling helium filled balloons. We'd tag these balloons with contact information and then, all at once, we'd let them go in the school yard. That sight of thousands of different coloured balloons floating away at once was pretty awesome.
The idea was pretty cool. If someone far away found your tagged balloon, they'd possibly write you a letter. Then you'd have bragging rights. I never received a response, but others did from far away places in Ontario and New York State. We'd hear stories about balloons making their way to Europe but that may have been an urban legend.
Looking back, this fund raiser was rather ill-conceived. I'll bet we were responsible for a great amount of littering and who knows how many ducks died chocking on our deflated balloons. You wouldn't get away with such an effort today, but we celebrated it back in my day.
Does anyone know when Balloon Day was killed off? Did anyone ever hear back from the person who found their balloon?
