The Drachen Foundation welcomed an invitation to contribute its "kite expertise" to the Deschutes Public Library’s "A Novel Idea…Read Together." The multi-faceted event, which ran from mid-April to mid-May, brought almost 2500 Deschutes county residents together around Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, set in Afghanistan and featuring that country’s fighter kite traditions.
On May 7th, the day for community kite flying, Bruce Lambert (World Cup Line-Touch Fighter Kite Champion in 2001 and 2003) and Dennis Crowley graciously donated their time to demonstrate North American-style fighter kiting. They also explained how this style differs from that in Afghanistan, where kite lines are coated with crushed glass, and fighters aim to sever each others’ kite lines (leaving the "kite runner" to retrieve kites cut from the sky). Organizer Liz Goodrich proclaimed it "a great day, even though the winds were light."
