Niagara Windriders Newsletter

The Official Newsletter of the Niagara Windriders Kitefliers Association, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

1st Club Fly of 2005 and Latest Club Kiting News!

Vol.6-2005: April 18th

1st NWKA Fly of 2005 this Sunday, April 24th:

Dust off your kites and get our your windbreaker. We fly again!

Join us at Lakeview Park for a brand new season of kiting and good fun with fellow club members. The sky will be adorned with many freshly made purple Kiskadee kites. Lots of other kite goodies will appear as well to colour the sky and ensure that Mother Nature knows that we appreciate Spring.

Our club fly this Sunday is registered with the AKA as our National Kite Month event. We are looking forward to seeing everyone - flying from noon until 4:30 p.m.

Successful Kite Workshop and AGM Held on April 17th:
An efficient general meeting handled routine business of the NWKA quickly to ensure that we used most of our time to do what we do best: build kites!

Here is a round-up of the business news:

1. Dues were approved at $5.00 per individual and $10.00 per family membership. Derrick Jeanes is now accepting membership fees. We would like to get this concluded as quickly as possible.
2. Our Treasurer's report indicates that we are in sound financial order. Many thanks to Derrick for his fine work in managing the funds.
3. Club apparrel was displayed: baseball hats, golf shirts and fleece sweaters were shown and tried on. Orders were taken. A specific email with more details will go to all members soon so that those who have not ordered can do so before we place the order. Delivery is scheduled for Sunday, May 29th at our second club fly of the season.
4. Two items will be purchased for club use:
a) Club logo hand stamp;
b) a 10 x 10 shelter (with sides) to serve as club headquarters at our home flying field and as a base for our club and visiting kiters to stay out of the sun and rain (hopefully no rain).
5. Our club will participate in the Niagara Fruit Institute's "Blossom Festival Fly" in Winona on Sunday May 15th. This is a paid event with funds going to our club projects. We will contact everyone with details on location and exact times. Five club members volunteered to fly and we hope more will be able to join in.
6. A general discussion on fund raising was held with some ideas presented to add some funds to help the club acquire a "signature large kite" which will be used at kite festivals when we join other kite clubs.

Kite Making Workshop - With Bob Luft

Bob Luft led all members present in the building of a Kiskadee kite. Bob has made many of these spritely flyers and certainly knows his stuff when it comes to building these kites. Tremendous preparation went in to having the kite kits ready. Bob even had tape widths, bridle lengths, reinforcing, spars and sails all ready for each of us so that the project was foolproof.

Kiskadee-1

Everyone had a great time. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words - so, we have an on-line slide show of Bob leading the NWKA members through the workshop. There is even a "class photo" with everyone holding their Kiskadee kite at the end.

The slide show will take about five minutes to load if you have standard dial-up Internet service, but it is well worth the wait.

Our thanks to Bob Luft for a splendid workshop!

Kiskadee-1






Saturday, April 09, 2005

Reminder: NWKA Meeting & Workshop - Sunday, April 17th

NWKA Meeting and Workshop - Rescheduled:

Vol.5-2005: April 9th

We have officially rescheduled this event after Mother Nature played a cruel trick on us last weekend with a nasty snowstorm.


Our Annual General Meeting and Kite Workshop will now be held on Sunday, April 17, 2005 from 1:00 - 4:30 p.m. at Humberstone Hall, 76 Main Street West, Port Colborne, ON. Bob Luft will present the kite building workshop following a brief business meeting.

We hope that all members will be able to attend. If you have not registered by email for this revised date please do so. We want to be sure to have enough kite making materials and refreshments on hand. The kite making workshop is 'free'.

Register by sending an email to: info@windriders.niagara.com

Some Kiting Stories from the News:

The AKA and the Kite Trade Association have been working hard to get out the news that April is KITE MONTH.

The news coverage and press releases are essentially geared to U.S. medial outlets, but Ontario is at least mentioned in passing in this story from Newsday.com (Long Island, NY).

All of this is very positive and helps to get a great message our about kiting.

Remember, the official NWKA "Kite Month" events are:
a) our Annual General Meeting and Kitemaking Workshop
and
b) our first Fun Fly of the season to be held on Sunday, April 24th at Lakeview Park in Port Colborne, ON.

These events have been officially registered with the AKA.

Another story from Palm Beach CA unfortunately highlights a less positive kiting experience. In the story reported by KESQ, Channel 3 News, a police officer (who obviously has lost his sense of youthful enthusiasm) arrested a kite flyer with LED lights on his kite for "...impairing the vision of night drivers...".

The case is currently before the courts and the verdict is still "up in the air", so to speak!




Sunday, April 03, 2005

April 3rd Meeting Cancelled Due to Snow


Vol.4-2005: April 3rd


An early spring storm with heavy snow has forced the cancellation of today's planned Annual General Meeting and Kite Making Workshop.

All members who registered by email have been contacted by phone and a general email was sent to the entire membership as well.

Our meeting and workshop will be rescheduled soon. All members will be advised by email and newsletter.

Think Spring everyone!