Balloon Racing Uplifts the St. Louis Community
For Jessica Stegen, Director of Communication and Event Production for The Great Forest Park Balloon Race, this time of year usually means prepping for more than 100,000 guests to flood Central Field in Forest Park for the Balloon Glow and Race. For 20 and 48 years respectively, these two events have captivated St. Louis locals and brought a sense of community every third weekend of September. But in a pandemic state, how can such a massive event move forward?
Despite the circumstances of COVID-19, Stegen and team were determined to live out the same mission they always have, a mission that seems even more important this year: bring joy and warmth to those in St. Louis.
“We plan the event year-round, so the days after the Glow and Race happen, we immediately start decompressing and looking at ways to improve,” says Stegen. “We’d been working since last September on what the 2020 Glow and Race would look like, but as the pandemic set in, we kept in close touch with park and city officials for updates and we were very optimistic that things would turn around so that we could have the event in some way.”
Realizing that they’d need to cancel the traditional event and come up with a socially distant way to enjoy festivities, Stegen and her team developed #LiftUpSTL, a social media campaign that offers St. Louisans an opportunity to celebrate those who lift them up. The social media campaign runs until September 30 in connection with The Great Forest Park Balloon Race taking place September 17 -20. This year, the Race will launch multiple tribute flights throughout the Greater St. Louis area in honor of essential workers, educators, healthcare employees and those standing up for change.
“We realized this was the safest and best decision for our team and our city,” says Stegen. “Knowing the struggles that people are going through right now and have been going through since the spring and knowing how challenging this is for all of us, we really wanted to turn our attention to honoring the people who help keep us safe, help keep us sane and help to keep our lives as normal as possible.”
While fans can’t gather in Forest Park this year to watch as the balloons take off, they can still participate online through the social media campaign by using the hashtag and posting a photo and brief story about something or someone who lifts them up. According to Stegen, there are few limits on who or what that uplifting entity could be.
“We want folks to give tribute to someone in their life,” says Stegen. “It could be a nurse or their doctor, a grocery store bagger, a delivery person or a good friend who helps keep them sane during this challenging time. They can even post about the pet they adopted during quarantine. So many people have gotten quarantine pets!”
One of the biggest aspects of the social media challenge, however, is the partnership with presenting sponsor PNC Bank. For every use of the hashtag, PNC will donate $25 to The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis for a total of up to $25,000.
“The Urban League of St. Louis is such a great representative of an organization that is lifting people up throughout the year and lifting up communities throughout the year,” says Stegen. “Plus they touch on all of our honoree sections for our tribute flights, from essential workers, to healthcare, to educators standing up for change.”
Over the next week, The Great Forest Park Balloon Race will announce the honorees for the tribute flights. Twenty local pilots will fly various times over the four days throughout St. Louis City and St. Louis County. That way, the balloons can bring smiles to as many people around the area as possible.
Statistically, the best wind conditions for flying are from 6am-8am and 4pm-6pm, so Stegen and team are tentatively planning for flights to take off during those time frames every day. The Great Forest Park Balloon Race social media channels will keep the public updated in real time about where to look in the sky for balloons, general locations and where/what neighborhoods balloons are headed.
While it’s not the traditional event that has enchanted St. Louis for nearly 50 years, Stegen is proud and excited about the new direction that’s been taken. She’s especially pleased with the underlying meaning of this year’s event.
“As we’ve thought about it more, #LiftUpSTL is something that we’ll continue to do because it is something that the Race has already inherently done,” says Stegen. “This Race has always brought joy and smiles to the community and now, we are emphasizing that.”
Stay tuned to The Great Forest Park Balloon Race social channels for updates on flights times and locations around the city and county.