Wild blue yonder
Grants residents try to catch the wind with kites

Rosemary Rozen, left, smiles while flying a kite built by Cibola County Arts Council executive director Robert Gallegos, right, during a kite-flying workshop at the Northwest New Mexico Vistitor's Center in Grants Saturday. Rozen said it was first time she has ever flown a kite and said it was a lot of fun. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Big Bertha became airborne, with a little help from her friends, and the double French military kite took a dive or two Saturday as Cibola County residents joined the pros for a day of kite flying fun.

Big Bertha’s owner and creator, Cibola Arts Council Executive Director Robert Gallegos, said it took four people to get his handmade craft aloft. Two of the Double Six Art Gallery staff, visitor center Ranger Rick Best and a news photographer recruited from the crowd held points of the kite while Gallegos wrestled her into the wind.

“She stayed up 40 minutes,” Best said, adding that Bertha made a controlled landing without mishap.

Paul Carattini’s double French military kite wasn’t so lucky.

The monster caught a gust of wind and made a nosedive into the ground twice, kite watchers said.

The first kite flying day at the Northwest New Mexico Visitor Center attracted at least 20 kite-flyers. “Probably more; it was a free-for-all trying to get the kites up,” said fly guy Best of the center. He added that the first kites off the ground were the store-bought ones.

Best, who provided technical advice and hands-on tweaking, said experiments during the launching process revealed that the secret to a stable kite in the winds around the isolated visitor center building is a wind sock grocery bag added to the tail, “courtesy of John Brooks (Milan Supermarket) and Walmart.” He quipped, “We recycle. We’re green here.”

Fonda Archibald, from rural Grants, said an ordinary trash bag worked well, too. Archibald attended the kite making workshop in March her children, Mariah Platero, 10, and Christie and Sarah Archibald, but did not make a kite for herself. As the afternoon wore on and Mariah's kite stayed in the sky for over 35 minutes, Archibald said she wished she had made her own.

“I had fun,” she said. “I’ve put ’em up lots of times, and turned ’em over.”

Tamera Hogge, 5, kept the kite she painted with animals and scenes up for five minutes, her father Craig Hogge said. “It was a little too windy,” he explained. Tamera said she will be at the May contest to compete for the money.

The kite making workshop/fly day was the second part of the “Kites Are Cool” program co-sponsored by the visitor center and the Double Six Gallery. Flying events are open to anyone with a kite, handmade or store-bought. Gallegos said he hopes to hold more fly days after La Fiesta.

The contest during the Malpais Man burning of Loomis event at La Fiesta De Colores, however, will be open only to handmade kites. Cash prizes will be awarded for the longest flying kite and the most artistic kite in each of three age divisions, Gallegos said. Five hundred dollars in prize money will be donated by the John Brooks-Milan Supermarket and Aflac insurance Company.