Center Moriches Taxpayers Community Discussion Forum

 

The First Annual Amazedness Kite Fly takes off on Sunday, September 20, to benefit the American Cancer Society. The event takes place at Smith Point Park Pavilion and Beach from 12 pm to 4 pm.

The kite fly is open to the general public for a recommended donation fee of $5 per person with kids fewer than five yeas of age getting in for free. The event features contests for kite enthusiasts of all ages and experiences.

Prizes are being given out for innovative kite builders. Kite contest categories include largest kite, smallest kite, prettiest kite, scariest kite, and highest-flying kite. All kites entered must be flyable.

Prizes include tickets to local shows at Gateway Playhouse, Theatre Three, The Long Island Game Farm, and the Halloween Spooky Walk at Camp Paquatuck in Center Moriches. The grand prize is a free flight lesson at Heritage Flight Academy in Islip.

Kites will also be for sale at the event.

Also, "Soaring Spirits" memorials will be available t o purchase and decorate to honor those who have battled or are fighting cancer.
Live music will be performed throughout the day, featuring Jay Scott as well as The Michael Jazz Trio. Free Ident-A-Kid packages are also being offered, courtesy of New York Life. Refreshments will be available and parking at the beach is free.
A suggested donation of $5 per person (kids under 5 are free) will be collected and participants will receive a free bottle of soap bubbles. A soap bubble release, in which all can participate, will kick off the event.

Amazedness Kite Fly creator, Jennett Meriden Russell, who is a journalist with the Southampton Press Group, said she originally wanted to have balloons released at the event, but was told by local environmentalists that such a release would pose a threat to sea life – especially sea turtles.

"This event is about saving life, and celebrating life, not hurting life – even a sea turtle’s life," Ms. Russell said. "I promise, no sea turtles will be injured in this kite fly."

Ms. Russell said the idea for the kite fly was inspired by her late brother, Dana Russell, who died of a brain tumor in 2000 at the age of 46. She noted Mr. Russell and her entire family has been longtime kite enthusiasts as the result of her father, Kurt Russell, a former morning disc jockey with WIND radio in Chicago.

"Because my dad worked for a radio station with the call letters WIND, everything to d o with the station always had something to do with the wind," Ms. Russell recalled. "His program was program was touted as ‘The Greatest Air Show’ on Earth,’ and every year, he and his morning show partner, Chuck Benson, would host a massive kite fly in Grant Park.

"I guess the vision of all those kites really stuck with all of us. Dana became a big sport kite enthusiast, and flew kites right up until his death," she added. "He just loved them, and so this kite fly is absolutely a tribute to Dane and my dad, who died in 1978 from a stroke at the age of 48."

Ms. Russell noted that the kite flies of her childhood have been incorporated into the promotion of the First Annual Amazedness Kite Fly. In the 1960s, psychedelic illustrator Peter Maxx of The Beatles "Yellow Submarine" fame was hired by WIND to do some drawings that were used in promotional advertisements for her father’s show.

One of those drawings, Ms. Russell believes, is of an old fashioned aviator with a mustache and goggles, fixed to a kite, which was used in printed promotions for the WIND Kite Flies. Ms. Russell used the same little aviator to promote the Amazedness Kite Fly.

"I know Peter Maxx did a lot of drawings for WIND, and I’m pretty sure he drew this little aviator guy," Ms. Russell said, noting she tried to contact Mr. Maxx. "He never got back to me, so I’m not sure, but it certainly looks like something he would have done. It doesn’t matter. The li’l aviator is a part of my history, and I love him and it seemed important that he was a part of the kite fly to remember Dana and my dad."

Ms. Russell also noted that "Amazedness" was her brother’s e-mail moniker. She said that Mr. Russell, in the late stages of his disease, had lost the ability to speak due to the tumor growing in the part of his brain that controlled speech and also paralyzed the right side of his body.

"He was still able to type with one hand and wanted to e-mail people but didn’t have an e-mail name and he didn’t know what he wanted," Ms. Russell recalled. "So, we took out a dictionary and gave him a pencil, and just let the dictionary flop open and he dropped the pencil on a page and it hit ‘amazedness.’ It was the perfect name for him. My brother was fascinated with everything about life and his home was filled with books on everything - science, religion, law, nature, building construction – he was just fascinated with everything, even the aspects of his own brain tumor and his own death. I’ve never known anyone so brave or intelligent. He was more than a brother to me – he was a mentor, a friend, a counselor, was funny as hell, and the most inspirational person I’ve ever known.

It kills me that this disease took someone who loved life to its fullest and was of immeasurable value. I really ho pe folks will join us at the kite fly and let’s tell cancer to go fly a kite."

Sponsorships are available for the Amazedness Kite Fly. For a donation of $50, a large sign promoting a business or personal message will be made up and placed in the sand during the event. For more information about the First Annual Amazedness Kite Fly visit ---- or call 474-1213.