Brisk sale of kites for Saturday’s kite festival

Brilliant Star School expects to boost its kite sales on the day of the Marianas Winds Kite Festival and Cultural Food Fair itself. The event is slated on Saturday, March 10, from 10am to 3pm, at the American Memorial Park baseball field.

“Kite sales are steady, but we are expecting sales to really pick up during the festival,” said school principal Richard Sikkel.

He expects to sell all the 100 kites they ordered for the family-oriented festival focusing on kites and cuisines from around the world. The kites sell for $8 to $20.

“We selected the kites this year for their easy flying and I can speak from personal experience—I went out and tested them this week with my kids—that they are really easy to fly,” he added.

Based on last year’s “good turnout,” Sikkel said he is looking forward to seeing more kites in the air and part of exciting competitions. “It will be a sight to behold.”

According to Sikkel, their annual kite competitions such as the highest flying kite, the smallest and largest kites are “always exciting.”

“The bar was set pretty high last year with one of the highest flying kites ending up on top of the Hyatt roof, the largest kite being a 20-foot-long octopus and the smallest kite measuring a mere square inch,” said Sikkel. “Eternal bragging rights and a trophy await the winners in each category.”

Should kite fliers get hungry or thirsty, Sikkel said Café at the Park, Shirley’s Coffee Shop, and Shenanigans will be selling food at the event.

“We have opted for one-stop meals that allow the fliers to eat on the fly,” he said.

Proceeds from the event will go to Brilliant Star School’s Tuition Assistance Program, which allows the school “to provide deserving students an opportunity for high quality education which might otherwise be unobtainable for them and to provide the school a well-qualified student body: a diverse and inclusive community reflecting a broad social and economic mix.”

Sikkel said non-fliers can join the different games they have set up and the raffle draw that would give away exciting prizes courtesy of IT&E, Big Dipper, Pacific Islands Club, Saipan Grand Hotel, DFS, and Shenanigans, among others.

For more information, email principal@brilliantstar.org or call 323-STAR (7827).