Sharing The Love Of Kites

by Clifford J Quinn
(Coopersburg, PA, U.S.A.)

This past August I spent a week in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. I was a volunteer at the Ronald McDonald Charities summer camp for children with cancer.

I was known to everybody as "kite man". During the week I conducted kite workshops with the youngsters who were 7 to 17 years old. We made Sled kites, Diamond kites and 3 foot Rok's. What fun it was to see the kids running all over camp flying their creations.

The highlight for me was teaching one of my students to make a Diamond kite. He was a young man who lost his sight because of brain cancer. It was an amazing experience for me and the young lad. With only verbal instructions he did a fantastic job. The frame was wood dowels, the sail was plastic and tape was used to assemble the kite . He even tied the fly line onto the frame all by himself. He was so proud and you can imagine how thrilled I was.

I'm already planning workshops for next year and can't wait till I return to see my friends again.

Cliff Quinn - Kite maker, and Treasurer of the American Kiteflyers Association (AKA)

Comments for Sharing The Love Of Kites

Average Rating

Click here to add your own comments

Rating

And The Sharing Continues
by: Clifford Quinn

Hi, my first experience making kites with kids continues beyond summer camps. This year I spent 4 weeks at camps for children with serious illnesses helping them create and make kites.

Being a serious kiter I have lots of different kites in my bag. At camp we play a game, I hand a youngster a kite in a bag, no picture, no instructions for putting it together. I use box kites, cellular kites, bowed kites anything with a challenge. Kids love it. They use their imagination, creativity and best of all they learn about all the different kinds of kites.

Summer here is over now but kite flying isn't. I now go inside children's hospitals and do the same thing. Volunteering and kite making go together like peanut butter and jelly. Children in hospital rooms are bored, kites bring a lift to their spirits and a smile to their faces.

Biggest problem is to stop them from running down the hallways flying their creations. They look forward to going home and getting out in a park to fly the beautiful kites they made.

Kites, quality time, family .... I love it.

Rating

I found you!
by: Yvon H.

Hey Cliff,

Nice little place on the web. I like it here. :-)

Cheers
Yvon H.

Rating

Great!
by: Tim Parish

Great post Cliff - thanks for contributing to my site.

Just had to Google you too :-) Any chance I could do an email interview? To see how I do them, just check out this one done with Ray Bethell some time ago...

https://www.my-best-kite.com/ray-bethell.html

P.S. You get to publish a few links that you might like to see get a bit more exposure...

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to YOUR Kite Making Stories!.

FREE E-Book!

I'm referring to Simplest Dowel Kites, my popular kite-making download. It's a printable PDF file. Make a diamond, delta or sled. Each kite is capable of flying hundreds of feet up for hours on end.

Could you do me just a small favor though?

Please sign up for my free monthly publication, "Tethered Flying". No other emails will be sent, and your details are safe with me. You need to be at least 16 years old. There's...

A huge "photo of the month" (via a link)
3 "tips of the month" (one each for beginners, parents and the more experienced)
A "flight report of the month" (selected from my own flying logs)

Back to top of page

Need winders, reels, flying line?

We earn a small commission if you click the following link and buy something. The item does not cost you any more, since we are an "affiliate" of Amazon.

Click here to buy anything you need. Just use the Search box in there if you need different weights or lengths of line, for example.

P.S. Keep an eye out for books by kite author Glenn Davison, a prominent kite person in the USA.