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)

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starstarstarstarstar 		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
starstarstarstarstar 		I found you!
by: Yvon H.

Hey Cliff,

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

Cheers
Yvon H.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		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...

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