The missing men, Raymond Broderick, and Bernard Sulzer had been reported missing the day the event had taken place.Īlthough their 16-foot boat was located anchored west of the Edgewater Park break wall, the Coast Guard search and rescue crews were not able to find them. In the worst consequence to come from the disaster, though, was when the balloons inadvertently impeded a search and rescue of two vanished fishermen. Nowakowski subsequently sued United Way for $100,000 worth of damages, and the matter was settled under undisclosed terms. Not only that, many of the balloons consequently washed ashore on the Canadian side of Lake Erie the following several days afterward.Ī rectangular structure the size of a city block, measuring 250 feet (76 m) by 150 feet (46 m) and rising three stories high, covered with a one-piece net of woven mesh material, was set up to hold the balloons, on the southwest quadrant of Public Square in Cleveland.Ī number of the balloons landed on a pasture in Medina County, Ohio, which spooked some Arabian horses owned by a woman, Louise Nowakowski, and reportedly led to injuries to the horses. The more than one million balloons dropped back down to earth, littering the land and clogging waterways all over Northeast Ohio. After being let go, the floating spheres of colorful helium-filled latex collided with a front of cool air and rain, causing them to fall back down towards the ground, still inflated. Regrettably, that’s not what ended up happening, however. With the balloons free, the thinking was that they would all stay in the air until fully deflating and returning to earth. At 1:50 p.m., nearly 1.5 million balloons were let go, and rose up from Cleveland’s Public Square, surrounding Terminal Tower. On September 27, 1986, the day of the stunt arrived, though the organizers ultimately released the balloons earlier than previously planned due to a rainstorm that was fast approaching that day. With a huge crowd of volunteers working frantically for days, 1.5 million helium balloons were filled and placed under an enormous net. In 1986, charity organization United Way of Cleveland thought they had the perfect idea to generate a little publicity and create a beautiful spectacle in the process: an attempt to set a new world record for simultaneously released balloons. Ruppert himself wants to send undeveloped film that high into the atmosphere and hopefully obtain some images of cosmic radiation.Balloonfest ’86 was a 1986 event in which the United Way of Cleveland in Ohio set a world record by releasing almost one-and-a-half million balloons. Many initial ideas were food based students were interested in what happens to a marshmallow or bean burrito when set that high. Students began by experimenting ideas Monday. The goal is to see what happens after launch, retrieve them, analyze what happened, and have the students interpret the results. The camp gives students an opportunity to develop experiments and put things onto the balloons as payloads. The public is invited to watch the launch in the grassy area across from their parking lot. They are partnering with a group from Upland called NearSpace to help launch the balloons. The launch is expected to take place on Wednesday morning (August 2nd) around 9:30 AM to 10 AM. Dale Ruppert, Revenue Programs Manager and Camp Director, says the ultimate goal of the camp is to successfully launch two high altitude balloons to hopefully about 100,000 feet.
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