www.TonyTheTigerBalloon.com

The days don’t get any better for us than when we get to visit a school that one of TONY’s best pals goes to. In this case, it was Harrisburg Elementary School in the town of Harrisburg, North Carolina.

As you’ll see from this visit, we left the school with much more than we came with!

I have to mention that Principal Gary Weart and his students were very patient with the “Gr-r-reat TONY Balloon Team”, it only took us a year longer to get to the school than we had planned. But a promise is a promise…

When we arrived, Mr. Weart welcomed us and showed us where we should go on the playground to put the balloon up. When we first got there, we thought the school was

brand new it was so well cared for. We learned right away, that at Harrisburg Elementary, the students and teachers have Gr-r-reat pride in their campus.

Just as we got ready to inflate the TONY Balloon, a light rain started to fall. But since the balloon was out, on the ground and ready to go, we figured that if we went ahead and put it up we’d stay dry under the worlds biggest umbrella, the “Gr-r-reat TONY Balloon” !

With the balloon inflated and ready for the students to get a close look at, it was time to have my Co-Pilot, Andre, climb in the basket and take the controls so I could chat with all the kids as they looked inside the envelope and the basket.

As the kids came up to the basket we taught them several things about the balloon system. They learned that the basket is made from wicker. Students learned that the burner is powered by propane, the same fuel their Mom and Dad use to barbeque.

Everything we do with the “Gr-r-reat TONY Balloon” requires a Team effort. Our 5^th grade helpers showed us that they knew what teamwork was when it came time to take the balloon down and pack it up. These kids were fantastic helpers, following directions to the letter.

With the balloon packed away, it was time to go inside and share some time with students. We got to talk about lots of things. We chatted about the Wright Brothers and how one hundred years ago, right there in North Carolina, they flew the first powered airplane.

We also talked about the brothers Montgolfier, who in France, back in 1783, flew the very first hot air balloon, made from paper and glue.

Now I made the picture above pretty big for a reason. I wanted everyone that looks on this web page to see what wonderful listeners the kids at Harrisburg Elementary School are. They paid very careful attention as we talked about the first passengers ever to rise into the sky in a man made craft, a sheep, a rooster and a duck!

Miss Laurie and I thought that we had pretty much had the best school visit day ever as we got ready to leave. But, the kids in Miss B.’s class weren’t finished with us yet. They honored us by asking us to let their pal, “Flat Stanley” join the Kellogg hot air balloon team for the remaining months of the school year.

Well you can just imagine how excited Miss Laurie and I were, so we quickly called our boss, TONY The Tiger to make sure it was O.K. with him, and when he said yes, we were thrilled to make Stanley an official member of the “Gr-r-reat TONY Balloon Team”.

So, here is a picture of “Flat Stanley” with his Tony Balloon Crew shirt on. You can follow Stanley as he travels with us by clicking on the “Adventures Of Flat Stanley” button at www.tonythetigerballoon.com . We also wanted to put a picture of Mr. Weart on this page. He’s a very nice man who works hard to make sure his students learn lots of important (and fun) things. We thought you should get a chance to see who he is.

Mr. Weart told us that he has lots of different ties, that’s a pretty fancy one he has on in the picture.

We sure enjoyed the morning we shared with the teachers and students at Harrisburg

Elementary School and we look forward to having a chance to stop by for another visit real soon. Our personal thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Rucker, who arranged our visit.