Different ability levels
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Forum Name: Entertainers Forum
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URL: http://www.mbd2.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=99
Printed Date: 13 April 2005 at 8:46am
Topic: Different ability levels
Posted By: balloonpastor
Subject: Different ability levels
Date Posted: 26 June 2003 at 8:40am
| Question for you twisters.....
I'm a kids and youth pastor and have taught several of my youth some twisting. Simple stuff.....1-2 balloon creations mainly. We have different ability levels in our group and we are having a booth at a local fair coming up. What recommendations would anyone have regarding having good and not-so-good twisters working the fair. We're small town, so we won't be swamped with thousands of people. I'm trying to work out the best scenario to have the youth feel good about what they are doing and giving good creations to the kids too. We have a few posters made with the animals & hats that we can make, but some of the youth still stuggle with making all of the animals. Some of these without the tlaents yet, love the kids the most. And I have one who is pretty amazing with the limited time he has been doing it, but he is not good with kids. I also need to watch out for myself trying to make all of the creations and let the youth do a lot of the work. I plan on being int he background making a "bigger" creation for a free give-away every night. We are not looking to drum up any business or anything like that; we are looking to minister to the kids and sharpen our talents. Any opinions/suggestions would be helpful. Thanx......Dave ------------- balloonpastor@balloonhq.com If you're ever in Middle PA, let me know and we can JAM!! |
Replies:
Posted By: Rapsudsy
Date Posted: 26 June 2003 at 12:14pm
| Dear Dave, My partner and I also work with the youth at our church. We work as clowns and entertainers. I have been blessed to go on the Mission field as a clown to India and England. We take some of the older youth ages 13 to 18 with us on our every week trip to the race track where we work as vendors. This gives them practice prior to the main shows we get to do. Allow time for freedom of expression from the youth as they will cut up and play around but they can also get serious when it comes to making money on the side for an event. I would suggest that you have a board with balloons listed from easy to hard. Allow the more experienced balloon artist to make the more difficult piece, thus making the wait line shorter. Allow those with the least experience make the simpliar creations.  If they are asked to make something from the difficult
side, let them know that it is OK to tell the person wanting the
balloon that someone else will have gladly make it for them. You do
not want to discourage them in any manner because they are a vital
part of your ministry.
You will actually be allowing them to grow and bloom where they are by allowing them to defer to another youth in the group for help.  The main thing is to have fun and make it enjoyable for all those around. 
Hope this helps. if you need any cute ideas as to sharing the gospel with balloons, email me and I will share the knowledge I have learned through God and others the ideas that I know. Perhaps we can exchange some? Be Blessed: Raps |
Posted By: balloonpastor
Date Posted: 01 July 2003 at 9:44am
| Thanks Raps for the insight.
Just an update, last night was the first night of the fair and we went through about 400 balloons. This was the first real exposure that some of the youth had to make a creation for a "customer". It went well and the youth did a good job explaining why they couldn't make some of the balloon creations. Plus, the got plenty of experience and realized how much they still need to learn. Night 2 is tonight after the parade. In the parade we are handing out rubber ducks. I received over 6,000 of them free! We live in a rural area and there will probably be only about 3,000-4,000 kids on the parade route, so all kids will get at least one. We will have about an hour before the parade starts to work on some more twisting. I have a different set of twisters tonight, so we'll see if it goes as well tonight. It will be busier after the parade. Dave |
Posted By: Rick
Date Posted: 02 July 2003 at 7:58pm
|
Well Dave, How did it work out for the 2nd night? Did the next group of twisters handle the crowds the way you wanted? Did you see and learn things the first night that you changed for the second? I'm sure that some of the other members would be interested to find out what you found out! What things happened and how you dealt with them. I hope you had a great time and learning experience! When it comes to getting ahead Half the FUN is getting there, the other half is what you learn along the way! ------------- Care To Share! Rick Mohr The Balloon MAN! www.RickMohr.com www.BLUNIVERSITY.com |
Posted By: balloonpastor
Date Posted: 03 July 2003 at 9:01am
| update............. 2nd night went well. It was much busier because it was the parade night. As I said earlier, we live in a rural area, the two High Schools graduate a combined total of about 210 seniors each year. But the parade was 3 hours long. Let's just say.....lots of tractors!! We had a float in the parade, so we only twisted for about 3 hours after the parade. It went pretty well. We had more youth, 8 total, and went through about 600-700 balloons. Everyone seemed happy witht the creations that the youth were doing. I have set up a rule for the youth though. They are not allowed to come ask me to make them something. If they don't know how, or are not comfortable making something, they are to tell the person that and suggest something that they can make. They can come to me later and I will teach them, or if I am making it for someone, I get them to watch so they can see how I make it. Having the posters and flyers of what the youth can make helps TONS!! They are doing a good job and it's neat to see some of their parents coming to just watch their kids make balloon creations or taking pictures of them making something for a kid. They are doing a super job, especially those who have been there more than one night. I mainly try to let them do all of the twisting and I sit in the background making a bigger creation for a give-away. Monday I made a 5 balloon bike with a 6 balloon man on it. Tuesday was Bob the Builder. Last night, Wednesday was a motorcycle and then a bearded man. The next few nights might be more of a challenge as I am losing some of our better twisters. On a side note, I had a rquest last night for a wheelchair. The man in a wheelchair asked me for one when he saw the motorcycle. That was my first attempt at one, and if anyone has any tips, please let me know. I made a pretty big one with geo's for the wheels, 260's for the frame, and an apple for the hand controller (it was an electric wheelchair). Any help would be appreciated so I can file it away in my little brain. Dave ------------- balloonpastor@balloonhq.com If you're ever in Middle PA, let me know and we can JAM!! |
Posted By: balloonpastor
Date Posted: 04 July 2003 at 9:25am
| Thursday night
update................. Things were hectic last night. It was fireworks night, and some of my youth didn't show up. The two who did, didn't know how to twist, so they ran our other two booths; Sandy Candy and Steady Hand. My two youth workers did show up and they did a tremendous job, even thought they have been twisting just a few times. Having the posters really helped them. One youth who knew how to twist did show up for the last two hours and that helped a lot. I'm kind of tires of the posters myself. It limits me because the kids come and tell me what they want before I can suggest to them a different balloon. I really got tired of making the huggy balloons. 
Two nights left, and I only have about 1500 balloons, so we'll go till we're out. Hopefully everyone will show up tonight and tomorrow; they will all be getting a phone call this afternoon.
Dave ------------- balloonpastor@balloonhq.com If you're ever in Middle PA, let me know and we can JAM!! |
Posted By: Rick
Date Posted: 05 July 2003 at 12:31am
|
A wheel chair can be done by using wheels made like spokes with a black wrap around the spokes like a tire. If you have made a Top Hat out of balloons then you know the basics! Otherwise, you take a 260 and create either two pinch twists or a tulip twist for the center - then make a bubble long enough for the proper wheel size for your wheelchair. create two 1 1/2" pinch twists a 1" bubble and then two 1 1/2" pinch twists and a bubble to match the first bubble that is the first spoke and twist it into the center (tulip twist/pinch twists). Continue this until you have 5 or 6 spokes. As long as you have made equal length spokes they will fan out evenly after you have popped the 1" bubbles between the spokes. Now you will inflate a black balloon to become the tire. Create a hoop large enough to nestle into the pinch twists at the end of the spokes. The point of the hoop where you attach it together, make two 1" pinch twists and twist the knot into it so that it becomes a relatively smooth tire. For the rest of the Wheelchair, It becomes a series of squares for the seat, seatback, side frames. I would love to be more specific but it depends on how large you are making it. Don't forget the push handles, the foot rests, the front wheels, and the axle for the back wheels. I know this is kind of vague, but should be enough to make another one using these type of wheels, since you already made one! The apple twist is a great idea for the "joystick" controller. By the way - make sure you create a second set of pinch twists for the center of the spokes so that the spokes are a lot more even and sturdy PLUS it will give you a place to attach the axle and the actual chair.
Hope this helps! Rick ------------- Care To Share! Rick Mohr The Balloon MAN! www.RickMohr.com www.BLUNIVERSITY.com |
Posted By: balloonpastor
Date Posted: 05 July 2003 at 7:54am
| Thanx Rick- I'm going to try to make another one today at the fair. Today, Saturday, is the last day and we are to be there from 2-10pm. I don't expect it to be very busy during the day, but it is supposed to be in the mid 90's aand very humid .
Last night, July 4th, went ok. It was raining on and off so we didn't have amny people. That was good because we have a bug going around the youth and my three twisters scheduled were under the weather. It was just me and two youth who couldn't twist, so they ran the other games and I tried to teach them how to do a twisty hat, etc... I definitely need to have a more firm schedule and a few back-up plans for a week long fair. We have a one day event at the end of September that will be no problem, but for a week long event, I need to plan out the twisters more and get a little more dedication out of them. The good news is that a few of the youth who never came to twisting practice have showed up and have picked up the basics pretty good throughout the week and I think they'll become involved more. For today I have plenty of help scheduled to come. Hopefully none will be sick and all will show up. The big balloon creation giveway is a huge hit. It has really impressed people and has shown people how creative you can be with balloons. Last night was a 3 foot Uncle Sam. I have slips of paper where people put their name on it and drop it in a bucket. At 8:30 I pull out a name and write the name on the board for everyone to see (this helps since the winner doesn't have to be there to win). But if the winner doesn't claim it by 9pm, I'll give it away to someone else. This is stated clearly everywhere. I would recommend doing this type of thing when you can. It has been a really good PR piece and some of the "older" people are stopping by every evening just to see what I created. Dave ------------- balloonpastor@balloonhq.com If you're ever in Middle PA, let me know and we can JAM!! |
Posted By: balloonpastor
Date Posted: 06 July 2003 at 7:41am
| Update.........Last Night of the
Fair Things went really well!!! All of my help showed up, 2 adults twisting, 4 youth twisting, all beginners. It went well. Everyone is tired of making the huggy bear. I would have to say that that is what we made the most. We need to make some more posters and have a few more selections on it (our current posters have 17 creations on them). The youth seemed to really like making balloons and a bunch of them asked when we were doing it again. I've made a few contacts at day-cares and nursing homes. We are in a different situation that most people (we don't need to make money from our twisting). I've checked balloonhq to see if there was only 1 twister around here and he is away for the summer, so we are not hurting anyone's business. Last night's giveaway was bigger than normal because we had plenty of help so I didn't have to help out on that end. I made 2 motorcycles, the roadrunner, tweety bird, a big duck and a huge face to give away. It went well. Overall, things went well for the week. I am tired though. I put in over 40 hours this week at the fair and parade, plus all of my other weekly work stuff. I am ready for a nap this afternoon; but we'll see if my kids are ready too.
Oh yeah - RICK - thanx for the wheelchair info. It worked out pretty well. I had some poppiing (someone sat on part of it!), so I never completed it, but I did every part of it and it went well. Dave ------------- balloonpastor@balloonhq.com If you're ever in Middle PA, let me know and we can JAM!! |
Posted By: balloonpastor
Date Posted: 07 July 2003 at 1:44pm
| Review of the week............
Things went well over all. Those who didn't know how to make all of the creations that we had on the posters told the child that they were new to making balloon creations and weren't sure how to make that but how about if I make this instead. Those who knew how to make everything had no trouble at all. On the last day we did have some of the less experienced twisters just make a stockpile of creations. We then handed them out to the children when they asked for them. I'm not sure if I liked this the best, although the kids didn't seem to mind and the parents liked that they didn't have to wait for something to be made. But to me, it seemed more like assembly line work. For the week, we had a total of 15 different twisters who went through a total of about 2,400 balloons. For next year, I plan to stress having my youth 1. take their time a little more with each creation - let them know that it is the process, not just the final destination that's important 2. talk to the kids more. Find out why they want a dog, what kind of dog they have at home, etc... 3. Draw on their creations more. Be a little more creative and make their balloons more personable. Plus, this will help it seem less like an assembly line; even if you do 20 huggy bears in a row. Will we do it again................yeah, we probably will. We'll see how things continue throughout the year and how much experience we all get. ------------- balloonpastor@balloonhq.com If you're ever in Middle PA, let me know and we can JAM!! |
Posted By: Rick
Date Posted: 07 July 2003 at 3:55pm
|
Congratulations on a huge learning experience!!! One thing I want to caution you about . . . and this is soley my opinion . . . don't overdraw on your creations! Sometimes twisters will use the art to make the creation and not the balloon. I know that some people would rather twist less and hand off something less complete, not I. I would rather make the balloon the creation and use the marker as the final touch to "seal the deal" so to speak! As in everything else, there is always exceptions - BUT - should not be the rule! Again, this is my opinion. I started off feeling that if you can't tell what it is without the marker, then I didn't do it right! But a lot of designs are getting to the point that the coloring is the only way you can tell them apart and the marker can help there with some of the details. But like I said before - congratulations! ------------- Care To Share! Rick Mohr The Balloon MAN! www.RickMohr.com www.BLUNIVERSITY.com |