Proceeds from two-day hot air balloon event to benefit nonprofit organization

Here's your chance to ascend into a silent world this weekend -- and to help kids for whom silence is the norm.

The Norris Foundation Las Vegas Hot Air Balloon Festival is Saturday and Sunday at Southern Hills Hospital, 9300 W. Sunset Road.

During the balloon races that begin at 6 a.m. both days, members of the public can ride along for $200 (kids must be 48 inches tall).

Reservations are recommended and can be arranged by calling Adventure Balloons at 247-6905. Organizer Buffy Sproul said if there are any remaining spots, walk-ons with cash in hand will be accepted.

Reservations aren't required for the tethered balloon rides, which are $5 each. A balloon "glow" -- during which the burners are ignited beneath the tethered balloons -- is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, and kids can walk into a grounded balloon from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

"They lay an old balloon on the ground and blow it up," Sproul said. "Pilots have a hard time getting rid of their balloons; these are their babies. They just blow it up and the kids go inside and just run around."

There's a second part to that segment of the fun, she said: "When they decide to close that attraction, they ask all the kids to jump on the outside of the balloon and knock the air out of it."

The event is a fundraiser for Deaf Kids' Funding, which has its roots in Sproul Ranch Inc., a nonprofit group started in 1988 by Sproul and her late husband, Terry, who was deaf. The group provided Deaf Kids' Kamp and Silent Weekend, a sign-language immersion program for hearing college students. Activities continued after Terry Sproul's death in 1994, but recent serious illnesses afflicting three of the group's other principals and precluding high-altitude activities led to the new Deaf Kids' Funding, which aids deaf people ages 6 to 25.

"We're helping deaf children with their financial needs for education," Sproul said. "Or with their family needs -- gas, or food, or whatever they need."

The Norris Foundation, she said, has been a longtime supporter of Deaf Kids' Kamp.

Sproul said, that to her knowledge, this is the only balloon festival currently in Las Vegas. Balloons always tend to draw a crowd, she noted.

"Most of the public is very balloon-friendly," she said. "The majority are very, very excited. They're excited to get up and personal with those baskets and look straight up when the burners are going off and filling the balloon with hot air."

When they are flying around the region, she added, "little kids hear the whoosh of the burners going off, come outside and see the balloon and get their parents, who come out to welcome us onto the street. People have brought out mimosas and orange juice and coffee. We meet all kinds of fantastic people when ballooning."

Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.