Friday, July 24th, 2015
Up, Up and away
Lake festival visitors can take flight in balloon
By William Kincaid
Photo by Shelley Grieshop/The Daily Standard
Coldwater native Josh Boeckman this morning uses a Viking-knit pattern to create a metal necklace during a craft show at Lake Shore Park. Boeckman is one of numerous vendors set up along the lake this weekend for the Celina Lake Festival. For a list of all events, go to www.lakefestival.com.
CELINA - Organizers are looking to take the Celina Lake Festival to the next level this weekend with a new activity: tethered balloon rides.
Midwest Balloon Rides, of Fishers, Ind., tonight and Saturday evening will offer festival visitors rides in one of two tethered balloons that will reach heights of 80 to 100 feet, providing a bird's-eye view of the lake and surrounding area.
"It's quite a thrill for people," Tony Sandlin of Midwest Balloon Rides told the newspaper, noting that each balloon can take four to six people per ride.
Rides will be available from 7-11 p.m. each night in Lake Shore Park at the site of the former Versa Pak building, festival co-chairwoman Michelle Emerine said. Tickets are $15 each or two for $25, and can be purchased in the park.
"We just want people to come out and ride them and make it affordable for them," she said.
The balloon's first riders tonight are Patrice Grieshop, her daughter Brittany, and longtime friend Bernie Newbauer. Grieshop is fighting stage-four cancer.
"I've been friends with Bernie for 25 years and we've talked about it off and on and we're going to do it tonight," Grieshop said this morning. "I want to get it off my bucket list."
She told the newspaper she made a bucket list in 2012 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The cancer returned in late May in Grieshop's liver, lung and brain, Newbauer said.
Working with Emerine, Newbauer arranged for the special balloon ride with Grieshop. A golf cart will pick up the women and take them to the balloon.
"She has the most giving, biggest heart and if I was in this situation, she would be doing this for me," Newbauer said.
The two women met nearly three decades ago while working at Joint Township District Memorial Hospital in St. Marys. Newbauer said they're best friends, just like sisters.
When Grieshop was diagnosed with breast cancer she fought the disease "like crazy," undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments while never missing a day of work, Newbauer said.
According to Newbauer, Grieshop was drawn to cancer patients at the hospital and felt like she was put on earth to help them, to let them know that she herself had made it through cancer.
"She could feel their pain," Newbauer said.
When cancer patients went home, Grieshop would follow up with phone calls and personal visits to let them know she was still thinking of them, Newbauer added.
"To know her is to love her," she said.
When Newbauer heard Celina Lake Festival was offering tethered balloon rides, she pulled some strings to ensure she and Grieshop could take the ride together.
"We have to do this and we're doing this," she said. "This is happening."
Both women are afraid of heights, Newbauer said.
"We'll probably be holding onto each other and praying," she said. "If she can fight her cancer, she can surely get through this."
Grieshop this morning said she's feeling well enough and is excited about the ride.
