Faces of the World

Kwantlen Park Secondary students, teachers, parents and community put together a very visible face to the launch of the school's new Faces of the World Scholarship Project. Constructed by the students and staff of what may be the world's most ethnically diverse school (over 160 ethnic groups), this could be the largest solar balloon ever constructed.

The students, under the guidance of teachers Russ Greenall and Adam Lipsky, prepared to launch a giant hot air cube shaped balloon in 2008. Using more than forty 100 foot rolls of dark plastic sheet, they worked thousands of hours planning, cutting and taping to construct the project. Each square side of the cube measures approximately 60 feet by 60 feet. Three sides are already decorated by the students with graphics representing music, living things and peace in our community. They left the cube's other sides blank to feature sponsers.

The cube is held by and inflated at one corner until it reaches an impressive 10 stories into the sky. The dark plastic absorbs the sun's heat and transfers it to the air inside the balloon. Once the air inside has heated enough, it provides the huge balloon with enough lift to launch.

The balloon is representative of the Faces of the World Project. It promotes the ideas of cooperation, coordination and involvement of the students, school, parents and community to acomplish something big. The Faces of the World Scholarship Fund is intended to assist students who may want to but do not have the finances to further their education. The plan is to create a number of scholarships, each paying for one semester, to allow the student the initial chance to attend a university. The school is hoping to raise $60,000 from donors and fund raising activities such as this to kick start the scholarship fund.

After much planning and work they went ahead with the launch. The weather of June 11/08 wasn't optimum but the school year ended in a few days. The balloon was carefully brought out, un-rolled and set up for inflation by blower. Most of the school along with local media was out to see the effort. Opinions from the watching crowd ranged from "I saw this little version work in a vid I found on the 'net " through the head shaking "Fly? Yeah right! Those science geeks ..." to the shrugging "Who cares? I'm not in class" It did have a lot of the people interested, one way or another and that was very much a part of what the project was meant to do.

The Launch

I got to the opposite side of the park at 11:15 and could see the balloon bobbing up and down, standing quite a bit higher than the top of the line of trees between us. The wind was picking up and began pressing the 10 stories of plastic sideways and down. Just I got near enough for some pictures the balloon began to twist and fold in on itself.

Running around to the other side I saw the reason. A huge hole had opened in the side, started by a tiny weak point somewhere. It crumpled to the ground, twisting and bucking as the hot air leaked out.

Some quick work by the ground crews got the balloon deflated and down neatly preventing any more damage. An inspection showed the damage could be fixed with a few rolls of tape so the plastic was straightened and rolled up, ready for a repair team.

All in all, I thought it was a successful project. Maybe not in the monetary sense but certainly in a number of other important ways. I saw great ideas, teamwork, a bunch of hard work along with a lot of fun resulting in some very positive attention and exposure for the students, school and community.

Thank you for the effort and those effects. It's nice to follow a local story that's positive and has people interested, doing and smiling. I'll be watching for what they dream up during the 2008/2009 year. Keep you posted as I learn more.

For more information about Faces of the World or to enquire about making a donation, check out www.kwantlenpark.com. You can also email lipsky_a@sd36.bc.ca or greenall_r@sd36.bc.ca.