The Lake Antoine Park Partners organized a second annual K.O.A.L.A. event that went off without a hitch over the weekend. K.O.A.L.A. stands for Kites Over Awesome Lake Antoine, and participants agreed that it was indeed an awesome event that they hope will carry on in future years.
Faith Zittlow is one of the professionals from the Wisconsin Kiters Club, and she informed that the kiters were invited to come and put on a show for the event. “If we’re invited to come back, we’ll definitely come back and fly. It’s always a good time to be out on the lake and put some color up in the winter for everybody,” Zittlow confirmed.
“One of my favorite parts of the fly today was launching some candy at all the kids. They run, they collect it, it’s awesome. It’s like a giant piñata, but we blast it at them instead of them whacking it with a stick,” she added, referring to the ‘Candy Drop’ activity that was put in place for the kids in attendance. The activity involved loading bags of candy into a large plastic launcher and blasting it into the sky, so that it appeared to be raining candy. Every so often, an air horn would blast, and there was a frenzy of candy-gathering among the children on the iced over Lake Antoine.
“So the Wisconsin Kiter’s Club, we have members in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and all over the Midwest. If you go to our Facebook page Wisconsin Kiter’s Club, we list all the events that we fly at on that page. We fly not only in the winter, but we fly in the summer as well. So there are lots of events to get out to and see our kites as well,” Zittlow added.
A brother-sister-duo, Joselyn Warren, who attends first grade in Kingsford, and her little brother Dayton, enjoyed the kite show. “I remember that white one over there,” Joselyn remarked, pointing at the large astronaut floating in the breeze. Little brother, Dayton, added, “I like the astronaut, too!” Sister Joselyn chimed, “I like that smiley face”. The siblings shrugged their shoulders, looked at each other, and agreed, “They’re cool!”
Darren Mercier, a spectator who drove from Iron River to see the attraction, added that he thought the event was really cool. He hoped the organizers keep the show going.
“I thought it was great we’ve had a beautiful day, I mean the sun was shining, the winds died off for a little bit, but then they picked up, and we saw a bunch more kites. There’s some really cool stuff flying up in the sky here,” Mercier remarked. Mercier’s favorite kite was also the large flying astronaut.
There were snacks and concessions set up in the snack shack, including hot chocolate served. Smokler’s Barbeque was at the park, serving food, including their loaded tater tots. There was a warming shelter set up, and a bonfire for folks to stay cozy while checking out the kites. There were K.O.A.L.A. pins, and Koala stuffed toys for sale inside the warming shelter, and there were some stands set up for participants who wanted to try their hand at flying a kite themselves.
For those interested in learning more about kite shows across the Midwest, visit http://wisconsinkitersclub.com/
