27 August 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Hot air balloons run on hot air, but Topeka’s historic balloon event couldn’t run without volunteers. This year marks the 48th annual Huff ‘n Puff rally, and volunteers crews spent Saturday afternoon preparing for the big event.
Huff ‘n Puff coordinator and president of the Great Plains Balloon Club Lori Hutchinson and her husband, Brian Hutchinson, have been doing this event for 13 years. She said training volunteers to help pilots fly the balloons is essential.
“When you’re on a balloon team, you’re hands on, you’re right there in the part of the action,” Huff ‘n Puff coordinator Lori Hutchison said. “We offer this every year to get more people involved and then to also help our pilots that are in from out-of-town who need the crew members.”
Hutchinson told 27 News there can be anywhere between three to six crew members, sometimes even more, helping with each balloon. Some of those crew members go up in the balloon with the pilot, while others remain assisting from the ground.
“The big events that we do, we need a lot of extra crew,” Tedd Maxfield, long-time pilot of ‘Jill and Tedd’s Excellent Adventure’ balloon, said. “So, people who are coming for the first time it’s good to give them some instruction. People who haven’t been around balloons for a while, it’s good for them to relearn what they’ve done.”
Maxfield said these training sessions really help volunteers understand the process of setting up, flying and landing the balloons.
“Once the balloon takes off and lands, we put all the gear back into the trailer, load up, start chasing the balloon,” crew chief Brian Hutchinson said. “Once we get out to the field where we are at, get permission from the landowner to go in and get the balloon. Then go out there and help deflate the balloon and pull it down, so it can all get packed up and put away.”
Because there are so many moving parts, balloonists like Maxfield and the Hutchinson’s are grateful for the help of volunteers every year.
“This is one of the oldest all-volunteer run balloon events in the United States. And so, it’s lasted so long because it’s such a great time, it’s a great community event. People who haven’t been here before are in for a treat if they come out.”
Huff ‘n Puff runs Friday, Sept. 8 through Sunday, Sept. 10. Balloons will take off in the field north of Hope Cemetery, located at the corner of SW Huntoon St. and SW Fairlawn Rd.
For more details about the event, click here.