Photo Essay : "The Great Balloon Experiment"

My friends and I have a dream. And it has something to do with balloon hats.
Lots of them. That's my mum with one. She looks super cool doesn't she? :)

"The act of making balloon hats serves 2 communities. The first is the volunteers who make the balloon hats. The process of learning something new and creative brings out the spirit of adventure and encourages them to think out-of-the-box. The volunteers learn to apply this to many other areas of their lives, eg in their natural giftings and talents, in their school work – how to study more effectively etc.

The experience of bringing joy to the public intentionally by making something that comes from yourself is a powerful empowering lesson that demonstrates in a very real way, how just one person CAN make a difference in the community. Ask anyone who has done it before and chances are they will tell you how much more the experience has blessed them than those they were creating for.

The second community is the people who are receiving the balloon hats. When children put on the balloon hats, they become prince and princesses in their own right, regardless of race, appearances, family background or living conditions. When adults wear them, they learn how to be child-like again and remember how to dream once more. In essence, the balloon hat wearer is reminded that he/she is unique and special. There is no need to earn that. Just to accept it."

I wrote the above paragraphs while thinking through about this project that my friends and I are about to embark on - The Great Balloon Experiment. My good friend, Charles, was first inspired by this person called Addi Somekh who went round the world making balloon hats for people in all kinds of places - the ghettos of New York, the grass plains of inner Mongolia, villages in Africa etc. His motivation was a simple one. He realised that balloon hats had a very special way of bringing people together and to communicate laughter and joy and he wanted to spread that to as many people as he could.

I think we could all to with a little more passion like Addi. Our mission statement for The Great Balloon Experiment is to

"Bring a gift of joy to the public by making balloon hats with no strings attached. By initiating such acts of kindness, we hope to encourage volunteerism among the youth & inspire creativity among the young & old all over the world!"

We are already in plans to hold one "mini balloon experiment" each month for the whole of 2007. These are sessions where volunteers will join us for 2 hours learning how to make balloon hats, then they will be dispatched out to one of the heartland areas to make balloon hats free for the public. That would take another about 2 hours with a short time of sharing our experiences at the end.

We are planning towards sometime probably next year in 2008, where we can mobilise 2000 volunteers to organise the first ever Balloon Hat Day in Singapore! These 2000 volunteers will go all over Singapore to make balloon hats for people in the same spirit that we have started this with. In a culture where things always come with a price, we hope to be counter-culture by demonstrating that it is indeed better to give than to receive. This kind of "successful sharing" of experiences and joy will hopefully generate and build trust in our community.

Drop me a note if you are interested to be part of this. Our website should be coming up soon. I was really thinking of organising one for my Masters class in Archi. Though I wonder if any of you would be interested. :)

Check out these other pics of my mum in balloon gear!