Dozens of prizes will be given out at the 16th annual Orcas Kiwanis Club paper airplane contest, to be held in the high school gym on March 5.
The Kiwanis do it “because people have just a big thrill out of folding and building these paper airplanes, “ said event organizer Lynn Richards.
Building and testing of the paper airplanes will start at 1 p.m., with the contest at 2 p.m. Kiwanis will provide all the materials necessary to build the airplanes, and instruction books will be available.
All airplanes must be built at the contest using the materials provided: Kiwanis paper, paperclips and scotch tape – except for the airplanes entered in the “Most Beautiful Airplane Contest.”
Those craft may be built at home by the person entering the airplane, can be made out of any type of material and do not need to fly.
“They can be made out of paper, steel, anything; the thing is that they be quite unusual and attractive,” said Richards. “Let your imagination run wild!” This special competition allows for a greater investment of skill and time than the paper crafts built in under an hour at the contest. The planes will be judged by a group of three Kiwanians.
“That is always fun because we get some real creations out of that,” said George Garrels, a retired aeronautical engineer who began the contest 15 years ago. “They’ve all been really quite good; the imagination of some of these kids is just fantastic.”
Garrels said when his children were small he would take them to the King Dome in Seattle for a paper airplane contest.
“We would try to build as many airplanes as we could and then fly ‘em down there, and it was always so much fun,” he said.
“When I first joined the [Kiwanis] we were talking about what we could do for the kids on the island, and I said, we need a paper airplane contest! It is really a lot of fun.
“When we first started, we were brand new at this and didn’t really understand exactly the rules that we needed to set up we had every kind of thing you could think of – the kids were about 20 miles ahead of us in building their things.” He said one child simply crumpled his paper into a ball, throwing it across the gym to win the distance competition; others loaded their planes with paper clips so heavily that “they were little missiles;” and another child created a blowgun type of launcher that shot his airplane far into space. The Kiwanis have modified the rules since then to allow only three paperclips per plane, a minimum wing span, and hand-launching only.
The contest is open to all ages and skill levels, and will be divided into three age groups: eight and under; nine to 12 years; and 13 years and up. In each age group there will be three contests: for distance, accuracy and time aloft.
There will also be a special contest for all ages.
“Come join the fun and participate or just watch, it’s a fun afternoon,” organizers say. “People will be available to help everyone build the very best paper airplane. Lots of prizes will be awarded and entry is free.” Prizes include a first-place medallion and model airplanes.
An average of 60 kids and 15 adults participate in the event.
For further information call Lynn Richards at 376-4925.
