Chris JonesThe annual One Sky, One World Kite Festival was held on campus, Sunday, Oct. 6, at the upper athletic field from noon to 4 p.m. This was Cabrini’s 13th year doing the event and Karen Fisherowski’s, media relations coordinator for the marketing and communications department, third year organizing it. The festival is usually held on the third week of October, nationally, but at Cabrini it is always a Family Weekend event. It was free to all students as well as community.
“In hoping for good weather, I was expecting a big turn out,” said Fisherowski. Since 2000, Fisherowski’s first year at Cabrini, she has been coordinating the kite festival. Due to past successes, she had chosen to have the same combination of entertainers from her two previous years running the Festival. The entertainment included a clown, a juggler, caricaturist, and an animal safari where all kids would have the chance to pet their favorite animal from anywhere in the world. “The entertainers had been there for two or three years so everything would run smoothly and without a hitch.”
In fact, this year’s kite festival turned out to be the greatest in Cabrini’s history. Every year that Fisherowski has done the event, the number of people attending has grown. She said, “According to our estimates, we had about 450 people come out and enjoy the festival this year. We gave out about 500 kites, which was a lot more than last year. Even by 12:30, there were above 200 people, which was above and beyond anything I expected.”
The entertainers made the children, as well as the parents, feel comfortable with all of the encouragement and energy that they put forth. The clown provided children with toy balloons shaped into dogs, pigs, swords, or anything else they wanted. The juggler showed everyone, including parents how to juggle and do tricks. The caricaturist did some black and white portraits for whole families and the safari was held for a little over an hour to allow kids to see and touch any animal ranging from a rabbit to a snake.
Also with the help of the Ethnic Student Alliance, Fisherowski was able to attract more people to her event. ESA had their own table set up in which they did some face painting and hair braiding. For a minimum charge, they were able to do anything the children wanted them to do. There were children with full face paint, in which they would look like a cat or a tiger or with something as small as a butterfly on the cheek.
Fisherowski said, “It wouldn’t have been a success without the outstanding performances of our entertainers and the exciting activities provided by the Ethnic Student Alliance. They were all a huge hit with the children, both young and old.”
In this being Fisherowski’s last event at Cabrini, she has chosen to leave her job with a bang in once again, successfully completing the kite festival. “I have learned a great deal from this event. As media relations coordinator, I was expected to do things from start to finish. I will take with me what I have learned in special event planning,” Fisherowski said.
All in all, the children loved the idea that they were able to fly their kites all day in the upper athletic field and that they got some free snacks and drinks in the process. There was the occasional parent that didn’t want his or her kid to have their dinner spoiled, but they still snuck some cookies, goldfish, or fruit snacks into their tiny pockets. This was a sunny day filled with the smiles of young children and sparked by family fun. This was a day that Karen Fisherowski was proud to be a part of.
