Take a Break: Keeping Their Heads in the Clouds
Balloon Festival Organizer Full of More than Hot Air
It takes a lot of people to put a hot air balloon in the sky.
But to put hundreds of them in the air over the past 37 years?
That can be traced back to one man.
Walter Grishkot of Glens Falls.
Ask anyone involved with the Adirondack Balloon Festival and they'll tell you Walter has been the heart and soul of the event.
"It started when i was doing the publicity for Warren County," Grishkot says.
He was supposed to get people interested in visiting Glens Falls and Lake George when he got this idea to host a balloon festival.
He figured if you inflate it they will come.
Over the past 3 decades more than a million people have loved the site of those colorful balloons floating across the north country sky.
Walter says the hardest part is raising enough money for the festival. He doesn't do it alone. But those he works with say he's the one that keeps it 'flying high'.
Festival vice president Mark Donahue says Walter's an inspiration and a rare commodity.
Someone that's dedicated so much of his life to volunteering.
"His level of enthusiasm is incredible. I hope I can keep going at that pace when I get to that age."
An age Walter likes to keep a secret.
"I'm in the 80s now," he says.
Age means nothing here though.
"It feels exciting. It's an adventure."
"Everybody wants to fly in a balloon."
