With tuppence for paper and strings You can have your own set of wings With your feet on the ground You're a bird in flight With your fist holding tight To the string of your kite Let's go fly a kite
You know what that means? It's Scott Fisher from Gift of Wings this year, and it's the Kenosha out-of-sight kite flight. And with him today is Rebecca Hanrahan from A Key of the Sponsor. Thank you both for coming in this morning. Well, thank you, Don. For braving that sunshine and beautiful weather, fighting that beautiful weather to come in here. Now, the Milwaukee one was when now? The Milwaukee one, kite festival, was May 23rd and 24th. Huge success.
And that was over Memorial Day weekend, and we just had thousands of people come down to Veterans Park to fly kites with us. They ever get tangled up? Of course. They just cut the strings. We cut the strings, or we call you to come and untangle those lines. Every morning I get dressed in the dark.
I was gonna knot my shoe. Now I'm gonna undo it in the dark, try to get the knot out. I've become an expert at it, so I don't know where I can get the knots out there. I was wondering why you had red and green socks. Oh, socks are okay. I only own black socks. That'd be smart when you get one thing. Exactly. Just pick it up. Okay, so let's talk about the one in Kenosha, Canada Park. This has been going on for quite a while now. Yeah, this is our 23rd year, the Ikea Otisite kite flight. And we started this with the city of Kenosha.
23 years ago. We were there. You were there. Yeah. You were part of it and you're still part of it. Okay. So this is a free event. No chance to get in free parking at Kennedy Park. And this starts at what time? We start at 10 o'clock both days with our grand launch of four to 500 kites that'll take place at noon.
And what that is, if you recall, and you've been there, we're going to try to launch all of these kites all at the same time. And that isn't us, the performers. That's the public. So we encourage people to bring their kites out to Kennedy Park. They don't have a kite. They can certainly get one from Gift of Wings in the park. And we're going to see how many kites we can get in the air to Mary Poppins, your song. Let's go fly a kite. Did you play? Yes. OK. Well, that's kind of neat. And your sponsor is a Kia this year.
Yeah, it's our fourth year sponsoring the event and it's truly something special. Community means a lot to us at IKEA and being able to be out in the community and being a part of this festival is great. Well, that's just super duper, yeah. Now, I've been to the past ones and what I remember most of that big octopus.
In the sky. Yes, the octopus the octopus will be there I call them the American dream team and and Dan Jones will bring his team and he'll be flying the giant octopus which by the way Don has grown from a hundred feet to a hundred and fifty feet now and Not only will he be flying that kite, but we have an Ikea
shark kite that's 75 feet long. And we also have an Ikea heart shaped kite that's a, oh, it's about 60 feet long. It's shaped like a heart and it's got little hands on the side that kind of flop around. So very unique kites. If the wind is just right off the lake and I think it will be, we'll be putting up the giant whale kite, which is over a hundred feet long. Imagine a kite that
If you wanted to, you could drive a school bus into the mouth of the kite. Now, these are kites. You know, they're not balloons, just so people know. These are kites. These are kites. They depend on wind. Right. And God bless your weather. It's going to be nice. Now you need a lot of wind. Yes. Or a lot of this jockey's talking. Get that wind or politicians. Get the wind up there.
Now there's also booths for food and so forth. It's a festival, right? Yeah, it's a festival. We'll have the food will be there We'll have kite sales of course from gift of wings gift gift of wings does the food to those juicy Johnsonville brats and and hot dogs and hamburgers It'll be a good time. Well, that's just great now when I was there one of the years you had a an acrobatic team and they had two handles and they were
Enter 20 and they never got tangled up. We're bringing in a team this year called the flaming emus and this team is composed of four people and they come from all the way from Portland and Washington DC to form this team
and they fly kites that have four lines. So each kite has four lines and you've got four members of the team out there. So they're maneuvering their kites sort of like the Blue Angels, only with kites to music. It's unbelievable.
Well, your whole life is kites. It is. Amazing. That's it. Your entire life is based on wind and kites. Wind and kites. Which gift of wings, by the way? Gift of wings is in Milwaukee. We're on Milwaukee's lakefront in Veterans Park. I think everybody has heard of Gift of Wings. Yeah.
The largest kite store in the Midwest. We also have a shop in Greendale, which sells kites. But we also are claimed to fame in Greendale is the best ice cream in Greendale. We also sell ice cream there. And then we have a store in Franklin. And starting about five years ago, we sort of got into the food thing a little bit. And we have the food concession at the Wittnell Park beer garden, which is fun. Oh, yeah.
Akia, that's talking about a food store. We have meatballs. We have all the Swedish goodies. I got lost there once and I was crawling on my knees for food and water. I couldn't find my way out. I smell the food. Well, you'll be able to do that very soon in Gurney, Illinois. We're opening up a small store. Yeah. The one on the interstate there is like you can have a football game inside. Yes. The one in Oak Creek. Yeah. Crick.
Hicks a Crick. We are talking about the Adeside Kite Flight and in studio today, Scott Fisher from Gift of Wings and Rebecca Hanrahan from the Akiah, which is sponsoring the Adeside Kite Flight. How'd you pick the Adeside Kite Flight? Hold on, hold on. There you go. What's the return on microphones? I believe Ryan and Zach approached. Actually, it was the.
Ikea National Marketing Director. Yeah. And he saw one of my YouTube videos online. And he called me up and he said, can you tell me a little bit about this kite festival stuff? And I went through the whole thing with him. I sent him photographs. I sent him videos. And about two weeks later, he called me up and he goes, we want to have a meeting.
And we had that meeting and that's where it started and it's just gone crazy since. It's been a great partnership with Ikea. So she went to her boss and they said, a grown man is flying kites and you want us to invest in that? Are you crazy? Have you lost your marbles? We're not doing that.
It's been going on for so many years. It's just a success. Yeah, it is. And you know what? That conversation, I believe, took place. This guy's crazy. He's flying kites for a living. You want us to get involved with him? Forget it. No, and it's a good partnership. And I've known Scott for years and you're lucky to be with him. Let's talk about the, now it's a two day thing, right? It's a two day thing. And they both start the same hours, Saturday and Sunday? Yeah, Saturday and Sunday, 10 o'clock. By the way, that's this weekend. That's this weekend. And your keyword
was Sun, and that is what we're going to have on Saturday and Sunday, it looks like. I'm looking here, sunny on Saturday and Sunday, 75 on Saturday, 73 on Sunday. Yeah, so it's going to be a great weekend. It's in Kennedy Park in Kenosha.
and free event, free parking, and it would certainly encourage everybody to come down and, you know, have a great time and fly a kite with us. We've got some special guests on one of which, and I think you've met Connor and Amy Doran. Connor was on America's Got Talent, and he flies kites indoors. Very lightweight kites. He has epilepsy, and this was something that calmed down his seizures.
along with, you know, the medication that he was taking. And Connor came in 12th out of 90,000 contestants. And it was Howie Mandel that brought him back for the finals. How do you fly him indoors? You move a lot. Oh, yeah. You got to keep running. You create your own air. You create your own air. It's dancing with kites is essentially what it is to music. Is he going to be here? He's going to be here. Yeah. Wow. Had to get him to come in.
Well, I saw him on America's Got Talent and I immediately got ahold of him and he's been coming in now for about 10 years. Just a great guy and his mother has been helping him and they both fly kites, they fly kites together and they put on a great show.
What about this free kite thing for kids? How does that work? It's the kids mad dash. It's actually the leaf guard kids mad dash and T fiber kids mad dash. And what we're going to do is we're going to give out a hundred free kites to the first hundred kids that sign up and participate to see who can get their kite the highest in 60 seconds.
Don, after this event, I need somebody to untangle all those lines. Can I count on you? Well, you got Rebecca, your sponsor right here. Rebecca would be more than happy to do that. I will be more than happy to help. We just cut them, right? Now, if your shoelace is not enough, I can help you there. I don't know how to do. When I was a kid, kites were a little different. We used to get the kite kit. I'm talking the early 60s here. Get the kite kit, two pieces of wood.
You had to glue it together. And then you had to wait for it to dry. My dad used to make it for us. Then you had to cut the paper because it wasn't exact. You had to cut the paper. You had to glue the paper to the wood. And then you had to make a tail, usually.
Mom's old bedsheets. That's what I was going to say. We took some clothes that, you know, mom wasn't using in a while. We just tore them to shreds. We put them on the tip and we started running and within minutes it got stuck in the wires on the phone pole. Yep. Yep. Exactly. Well, that is all changed now. Instead of using paper and glue and sticks where you were using ripstop nylon, we're using graphite spars. So the nylon doesn't rip. The spars don't break and we have beautiful
preformed, pre-made tails that we put on some of the kites. I remember my father making those things and we couldn't wait. Well, it's not dry yet. Well, give it to me now. Let's see. And we took it out. We ran down the block and we had so many foam poles. We grew up in New York and then everything was wires and everything. And it got stuck up there and immediately the tears started running and it was there until it brought it and came down. That's exactly right. Occasionally, I'll see a kite here on the lakefront in Racine.
in a tree. When I had my dog, I used to walk my dog.
And occasionally it would go down, down, and then it was gone after a while. It's just somebody got it down or a squirrel bit it down or whatever. Yeah, they usually fall down. But there's no obstructions at Kennedy Park. No, there's no obstructions at all. There's a couple of trees on the west side of the park. But yeah, it's a wide open park. It's one of those beautiful parks that's right on Kenosha's lakefront. And it's a real treasure for the folks in Kenosha.
Okay, let's run down the whole thing in the last few minutes here. Get everybody psyched about this. Give us the hours, the performers, everything that's going on. All right, Kennedy Park in Kenosha, and it's the Ikea Otisite Kite Flight, Saturday and Sunday. That's this Saturday and Sunday, June 6th and 7th. We start at 10 o'clock, our grand launch.
of 400 kites and that's the public doing that will take place at 12 noon and right after the grand launch our performers will come out onto the field. The flaming emus will be flying their four-line kites. James Almas from Vancouver and I should add Don that James Almas flies, are you ready? He flies four kites all at the same time.
two line kites. So he has one kite in the right hand, one kite in the left hand, one on his shoulders and one on his hips. So he's crazier than you. Yeah, he's crazier than me. And he flies this to music. It's spectacular. The giant kites, the Ikea shark kite, the Ikea heart kite and that giant octopus that you were talking about earlier will be flying this weekend in Kennedy Park. How do you slip that down there?
A giant octopus. Does it fold up really good? Oh, it folds up. It's like a giant sleeping bag. Oh, OK. Yeah. And by the way, we hold it down with 4,000 pound line and giant metal tent stakes. I'd like to see a plane going by and say, we've got a giant octopus here in the sky. We don't know how it got there, but we're going to make our way around it.
Actually, that has happened. You know, the Coast Guard helicopter that comes up and down the shoreline, they have reported it. That's a crazy guy, Scott Fisher. Yeah, we know who he is. We'll pick him up.
Okay, so that is this Saturday, this Sunday. Right. It starts all at 10 a.m. Right. 10 a.m. with the grand launch at noon. We can't forget that and the giant kites and the performers will go up right after that. And the Kids Mad Dash will take place at 2.30 and four o'clock where we'll be giving away a hundred free kites to the first hundred kids that sign up and participate. Rebecca has volunteered to untangle all of that line for us.
And of course, Gift of Wings will be there selling kites and food.
And of course, the city of Kenosha, you know, the city of Kenosha has just been really great over the last 23 years, working with us on this kite festival. So we appreciate that. And Ikea, Ikea is the greatest, the greatest partnership we have ever had. And we sure do appreciate it. You fly kites in the store. It's so big. I gotta tell you, I'm trying to talk.
the general manager of IKEA, Zach, into letting Connor Doran come into the Oak Creek store and flying kites. One of these days, I'll talk him into it. What's your boss's first name? Zach. Zach. Yeah. Zach, we've got a man out here. He's got a bunch of kites with him. So that crazy lunatic, Scott Fisher, don't let him in. Call security. No, this is a wonderful thing you do for Kenosha and Milwaukee.
You put a lot of time and effort. It's not easy to put these things together. I know. No, it's not. But you know what? It's so much fun. It's a lot of permits. It's a lot of stuff to do. And you do a good job of the smile on your face the whole time. Yeah. You're crazy, but you smile. That's good. I like that. Thank you. I like being crazy and smiling. Well, thank you, Scott. You know, you're always welcome here. Well, thank you, Don. And Rebecca Hanrahan, you picked a good guy to team up with here. And Don, you know, I have one last thing I've got to say to you. Go fly a kite.
I've known you long enough where I know where that's your last words. Rebecca Hanrahan from Ikea in Oak Creek. Oak Creek. I was told only Hick say Crick. And Scott Fisher from Gift to Wings and the big out of sight type flight this weekend beginning at 10 a.m. at Kennedy Park in Kenosha. Thank you guys for coming in. Thank you, Don. Thank you. Appreciate it.
