Hot air balloons and kites fill the sky over Cameron during weekend | News

(CAMERON, Mo.) The Old School in Cameron and the Cameron Municipal Airport sponsored the first ever Cameron Hot Air Affair event. And a resident was behind a lot of the organizing and planning.

“Once they got up in the air and was glowing up, we opened that up, and we let the crowd go in and talk to the pilots sit in the baskets. The kids loved it. That was the interaction that I was hoping for, “One of the organizers Denise Maddex said.

Maddex says this was a dream that she’s had for a long time–to have a hot air balloon festival in the town.

“It went really well. I had a lot of great team players that contacted everybody to to be a part of it. It was a dream of mine to do something like this,” Maddex said.

She adds that the turnout for Saturday made her happy to see so many people interested in the event.

“[We had] About 3,500 people here last night,” Maddex said.

There were balloon competitions early Saturday morning and then a balloon glow in the evening. The weather conditions on Sunday weren’t good for sending out the balloons again, but another feature of the event was a kite show.

“The kites that we’re flying range in size, there’s some that are as small as a credit card and as big as a school bus,” owner of Great American Kites and Events Sean Beaver said.

Beaver is the owner of Great American Kites in the Polo area. He says bringing dozens of kites out for the day made for great experiences with kids and families.

“I think that’s what it’s all about. There’s a ton of kids, there’s kids all around you right now. And not only that there’s a lot of adults out here enjoying themselves too. So I think in some ways, we’re for the young and the young at heart,” Beaver said.

Maddex thinks the event was a success to have it again next year.

“A lady that was in her 80’s it was on her bucket list. She got to fly with the ReMax balloon. She actually got to fly Friday night. She got to complete her bucket list. To me that was all worthwhile,” Maddex said .

All the profits raised from the event will go towards preservation of The Old School in Cameron and a few buildings in the town.