Mainly clear. Low 79F. Winds light and variable..
Mainly clear. Low 79F. Winds light and variable.
Children scramble for more water balloons at the water balloon war in West Columbia on Thursday.
The West Columbia Volunteer Fire Department turns the tides of the water balloon war on Thursday after using their fire truck hoses on the children.
Hazel Meservy and Savannah Robertson build their water balloon launcher Thursday afternoon at the Lake Jackson Library.
Ocean Landreneau and Kyla Broderick made a valiant effort with their first water balloon launcher at the Lake Jackson Library.
Ande Larson, youth specialist at Lake Jackson Library, discussing the parameters of the water balloon launch.
Avery Myers, 13, and Teaghan Robertson, 12, test their water balloon launcher, built with a paper plate, duct tape and rubber tubing, Thursday at the Lake Jackson Library.
Hazel Meservy, age 12, and Savannah Robertson, age 14, trying their best to launch their water balloon launcher at the Lake Jackson Library Thursday afternoon.
Ocean Landreneau and Kyla Broderick create their water balloon launcher to attempt to break the record of the farthest water balloon shot using limited resources.
Jiles Parker, 12, and Andy Coe, 12, receiving help from Morgan McPherson, youth assistant, to hold and launch their water balloon across the library's exterior.
Jiles Parker and Andy Coe, working together to build their best water balloon launcher at the Lake Jackson Library.
Jiles Parker, 12, and Andy Coe, 12, testing out their water balloon launcher before putting it to the test at the Library's water balloon launch challenge.
Morgan McPherson, youth assistant, explaining to the kids that they have limited resources to build their contraption to launch their water balloons. Some of the resources include, rubber tubing, paper plates, duct tape, and popsicle sticks.
Children scramble for more water balloons at the water balloon war in West Columbia on Thursday.
The West Columbia Volunteer Fire Department turns the tides of the water balloon war on Thursday after using their fire truck hoses on the children.
Hazel Meservy and Savannah Robertson build their water balloon launcher Thursday afternoon at the Lake Jackson Library.
Ocean Landreneau and Kyla Broderick made a valiant effort with their first water balloon launcher at the Lake Jackson Library.
Ande Larson, youth specialist at Lake Jackson Library, discussing the parameters of the water balloon launch.
Avery Myers, 13, and Teaghan Robertson, 12, test their water balloon launcher, built with a paper plate, duct tape and rubber tubing, Thursday at the Lake Jackson Library.
Hazel Meservy, age 12, and Savannah Robertson, age 14, trying their best to launch their water balloon launcher at the Lake Jackson Library Thursday afternoon.
Ocean Landreneau and Kyla Broderick create their water balloon launcher to attempt to break the record of the farthest water balloon shot using limited resources.
Jiles Parker, 12, and Andy Coe, 12, receiving help from Morgan McPherson, youth assistant, to hold and launch their water balloon across the library's exterior.
Jiles Parker and Andy Coe, working together to build their best water balloon launcher at the Lake Jackson Library.
Jiles Parker, 12, and Andy Coe, 12, testing out their water balloon launcher before putting it to the test at the Library's water balloon launch challenge.
Morgan McPherson, youth assistant, explaining to the kids that they have limited resources to build their contraption to launch their water balloons. Some of the resources include, rubber tubing, paper plates, duct tape, and popsicle sticks.
There’s nothing like the cool splash of water in the summer heat, and two area libraries took the idea up a notch with water balloon activities, one a challenge for the mind and another a challenge between civilians and first responders.
Lake Jackson library hosted a teen water balloon challenge to encourage ingenuity and creativity along with providing relief from the heat.
“One of my favorite things to do is just put a random pile of objects in front of children and teens to see what they can create out of it,” Lake Jackson Youth Specialist Ande Larsen said. “We gave them a particular goal of launching water balloons because at the end of their summer in the heat, who doesn’t want to play with water balloons? It’s something that we can easily pick up but we can also measure as it goes, hopefully, the length of the building.”
The challenge consisted of three parts: building a balloon launcher within 10 minutes, launching the balloons with the goal of spanning the length of the building, then reevaluating if needed to try again.
Participants had simple items of string, yarn, paper plates, elastic, rope and Popsicle sticks to work with. Larsen pointed out some library resources — books on engineering — that could prove helpful with the endeavor if the teens wanted to reference them.
The teens then paired up and immediately went to work putting together their launchers.
Avery Meyers, 13, and Teaghan Robertson, 12, were one team that quickly came up with a game plan.
They started with creating a folding mechanism so they could launch it alone, but they also wanted to have something that was curved to create enough tension in the bungee cord to make it launch farther, Meyers said.
Another team made up of Hazel Meservy, 12, and Savannah Robertson, 14 had slightly different plans.
“We’re gonna take this use it like a handle and probably like tape them to the plate. That way they stand up and one’s gonna hold it and the other one’s going to pull back the water,” Savannah said.
Savannah was confident in their effort as she was familiar with what a launcher looked like, she said.
This is the second time the library has sponsored the challenge after a five-year hiatus. The goal of the project was to promote teamwork and creativity, Larsen said.
“I hope that they work together,” she said. “I hope that they find inspiration in the materials and that they work together to achieve a common goal and maybe that’ll inspire them to see what other people have done amazing, you know, throughout history with weird, unusual goals and objectives. They can get pretty creative.”
On the first launch, only one team made it to about a 10-foot distance. The others barely got past a foot, but that did not deter the teens from trying again.
Given the chance at a do-over, the teams went back inside to brainstorm and redesign their launchers.
Twelve-year-olds Jiles Parker and Andy Coe decided they needed to adjust the weight of their launcher, and were having fun trying to figure out how, they said.
The second launch did not fare much better, but the teens were learning from their failures.
“You can see what you’ve done wrong and you can retry and keep retrying and just don’t give up,” said 13-year-old Kyla Broderick, who partnered with Ocean Landreneau, 14.
In West Columbia, the water balloons were used to launch a war.
The West Columbia Volunteer Fire Department and West Columbia Library staff were ready for battle against the community’s kids.
“We got permission from the city of West Columbia to use the entire park except for the pool. No cost for the use of the park,” West Columbia Library Branch Manager Bobby Edge said.
The nonprofit organization Friends of West Columbia helped supplement supplies for the library, providing balloons and volunteer time, Edge said.
A fire safety talk coordinated by Fire Marshal Marvin Kilsby preceded the start of battle, as did a demonstration of how firefighters prepare to battle fires.
“We want kids to get out of the house and make sure they ask their parents if their smoke detectors work,” Kilsby said. “Learn the address of your home so if you call 911 they will know where you’re at. Go to a certain spot so that way we don’t have to come to look for you and your family knows where you’re at.”
With the serious talk over, the fun began.
“Anything for the kids having a good time and getting them out of the house,” Diana Rangel said. “Whenever there are events I bring my grandkids all the time. I am the grandma that takes them everywhere.”
Robert Villegas, 9, was having a good time playing with water.
“When it was gonna end I started to enjoy the water more because I got a water gun,” Villegas said.
Makynzee Figueroa, 9, preferred the fire truck.
“I enjoyed the event. It was fun. I like the water — I played with my brothers, sisters, and cousins” Makynzee said. “(I prefer) the fire truck over water balloons because it’s fun. Also we don’t have to hit each other with balloons so we don’t get hurt and stuff.”
Along with water balloons, the fire truck splashed the kids with water toward the end of the event. Michael Rivera, 9, liked that part the best.
“The event was pretty fun,” he said. “I like the water, but (liked) the fire truck the most because it’s a water hose-more water.”
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