Getting Started
- Start by creating an account here.
- Add balloon(s) to your cart and pay with your bank debit card or credit card. Your balloon purchase/s will be confirmed to you by email. If you purchased a balloon offline, you will be sent a unique ‘Balloon Activation code’ by email, which you can enter to give you access to your balloon account.
- You're now ready to decorate and customize your balloon!
Choose from various shapes and colours, add a pattern and your name. You could even fine-tune the amount of helium in your balloon to give you the ultimate edge – will a full balloon travel further?
The Race...
Welcome to the first 100% eco-friendly “West Kent” virtual balloon race, where everything is real except the balloon.
This is a new, innovative, fundraising solution to the Coronavirus self-isolation and event cancellations that does not involve gambling or just simply donating. This event is a fun, 7 day computer game, where you can control your balloon parameters to aid winning! You can follow your own custom decorated balloon on Google Maps and via satellites 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
The funds from this ‘virtual balloon race’ will support the West Kent 2026 Festival Appeal, with 50% being awarded between 2 local children's charities, which are We Are Beams, and It's My Life Trust.
We hope to involve as many children as possible, so we have decided that launching the balloons on Thursday 17th December at 5pm from Father Christmas' Grotto in Lapland would be the perfect location. The distance each balloon travels will be measured at the end of the race, which is on Thursday 24th December at 5pm.
£3 will buy you a balloon, and you can customise, personalise, and name it - all online.
This is such a fun project, so please do get involved, and buy as many balloons as possible for your children, grandchildren, and neighbours. The whole event can be viewed online in the lead up to Christmas, which should keep children busy checking on their balloon's progress. With climate change and Coronavirus on everyone's mind, this COVID-busting, climate change and wildlife friendly, e-fundraising event is a perfect way to see out 2020.