The Dalles Celebrates Cherry Festival…

For weeks prior to April 26, Cherry Heights Retirement Activity Director, Mary Catherine Preston, and her army of volunteers drew plans, revised them and made mock-ups for their Cherry Festival float. With the help of her friend, Forest Cline, Dietary Supervisor, Flo Hearn, Norman Lemke, and Sue Gibson, they hammered  pieces together to make their creation hold up against the Gorge winds.

That Saturday was a clear, cool day as Manager Jim Pryts and Jackie and Jerry Bany prepared for the Health Fair associated with the Cherry Festival. They hung banners, arranged brochures and displayed the basket of goodies that would be given out as one of the business bingo prizes. Jim was happy  to play his guitar for the fair goers which brought more attention to Cherry Heights.

In the meantime Pom, Pom the Clown (Manager, Marlene Pryts) worked the cheering crowd as the beautiful, sturdy float moved slowly through the streets. Forest Cline was the driver, Sue Gibson rode the float with Mary Catherine, Pom Pom  the Clown, and 10 residents. They all waved to the crowd with broad smiles. In turn the crowd waved back.

It was a good day for everyone. The residents, and volunteers were thrilled to take home a 3rd place ribbon in the Senior Citizens entries. It made everyone ask, “When is the next festival in The Dalles!”  The Gorge winds never did show up.

(Picture furnished by Mark Gordon, The Dalles Chronicle Newspaper)

Balloons Carry Prayers of People with Faith
By Elroy King - Reprint from The Chronicle, September 7, 2007

Prayers are being lofted toward heaven locally a new way - via balloons.

A prayer balloon release ceremony has begun at Cherry Heights Retirement Center. But the organizers of the event, which began on Aug. 25, are the first to say it is not the balloons themselves that makes this a significant and spiritual experience, but the faith of the participants in the release.

For two weeks before the first release, residents, families and friends along with staff had been filling out prayer request slips. The slips were then put into balloons, which were inflated and released by the residents, visitors and staff following a prayer from Manager Ken Rice.

The balloon release idea came from Ken’s wife, Terry. She had done something similar as a child in school. She and Ken practiced the event in several senior communities they have managed over the years.

When Terry was 10 and living in Michigan her fifth grade class set off balloons with messages containing their names. Within a short time she got a letter from a girl in Seattle and they became pen pals, a relationship that continued for about two years. Terry says this was kind of a miracle in itself that a balloon launched in Michigan would end up in Seattle as the prevailing wind would usually take it the other direction.

She has always thought about the event from her childhood. As a result, the Rice’s started the idea at other senior centers they have managed and it has spread around the country. The last company they worked for had 350 locations and many of them did this. When they did the balloon release at a center in Georgia it was covered by Fox TV and the Atlanta Constitution.

The Rice’s have been here since May and she said she has thought about starting up the idea since they got here. She found that a huge majority of the residents at Cherry Heights are Christians. With that kind support base, she decided to go ahead with the idea. Most of the residents participated in the first release, but no one is forced to do it, the couple said.

 Those who do participate write out their prayer requests on paper slips available at the center. The requests can be for anything or can even be praise for prayers already answered, she said. The prayer requests are not signed. Putting them in balloons and launching them makes a little ceremony of the event that participants seem to enjoy.

She puts the prayer requests inside the balloons the night before the release and then inflates the balloons. The next day they are released from behind the center.

It is not the balloons that are important, Ken said, it is people believing their prayers will be answered. At other locations, sometimes more than 100 balloons have gone up. There were 67 in the first launch here.

Terry says she never reads the prayer requests and the first time there was only the center’s name affixed to the balloons, but no address. That will change in the future when the address of the center will be stamped on the paper slips. As a result of not having an address included they have not heard back from anyone who found one of the balloons. They did hear back from finders at previous locations.

On the day of the launch, each resident is given two balloons to carry out. No one knows whose prayer they are carrying. Before the launch, Ken, who is an ordained minister, prays over them and they are let go.

Terry said a couple of residents who participated feel strongly that their prayers have been answered, one before going back inside the building and the other the next day. Ken said he has since heard from others who feel the same way.

Rice also teaches a Wednesday night Bible class. He formerly pastored a church in Paris, Tenn.

The next date for a launch is Saturday, Sept. 22 at 10:30 a.m. Then they will be held at least once a month, usually on a Saturday near the end of the month, weather permitting. All prayer requests need to be in the night before the launch and in the future anyone in the community is invited to take part. For more information on the launch dates each month, call Terry at 296-6880.