DATE: Saturday, November 22, 1997           TAG: 9711210085

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SUE VanHECKE, CORRESPONDENT

                                            LENGTH:   52 lines

BIG BALLOONS TO BUOY INTEREST IN PARADE

WHAT WEARS STRIPES, is 22 feet tall and takes eight people to keep under control?

No, not a giant jailbird. It's the big candy cane balloon which - along with a toy soldier, snowman and Santa Claus - will be floating over downtown Norfolk in this evening's Grand Illumination Parade.

Amazingly, the huge vinyl balloons, supplied by Kemp Balloons of Selbyville, Del., are all handcrafted.

``We make the patterns and everything here, everything is done from scratch,'' said operations manager Linda Johnson. ``You lay it out, tack it down, mark it out and cut it out like you would if you were making a dress. Then everything is glued together. We blow it up until it's hard, and then tie it off with a rubber band.''

The average price of a balloon from the Christmas-themed collection, which are among the smaller-sized balloons the company manufactures, is $7,000, ``but we've sold balloons for as much as $70,000,'' Johnson said.

Who buys the balloons? Kemp's clients include Target department stores, for whom the company made an airborne mascot, as well as various parades around the world. The company's Woody Woodpecker balloon still flies in New York's annual Macy's parade.

Kemp Balloons was founded as a float-building business, then moved into the balloon field 27 years ago.

Each of the holiday balloons coming to Norfolk will require three to five tanks of helium to inflate and an average of eight handlers to guide it through the city streets.

Of course, there are certain safety precautions a balloon-wrestler must take.

``One of the things you don't want to do is wrap a rope around your hand,'' Johnson said, ``because if by any chance it gets a little bit windy, and your hand is wrapped up in that rope, you're going to get rope burn.''

Overhead obstacles aren't an overwhelminmg concern, she added.

``We don't have to worry about wires or anything because (the balloons) can fly down the street a little bit sideways or leaning forward a little bit.

``And no problem going under overhead crosswalks because the toy soldier and the snowman, they can do the limbo under that. And the crowd loves it when the balloons come down and go back up anyway. It's very exciting.'' ILLUSTRATION: FILE PHOTO

A toy soldier, sponsored by NationsBank, and a snowman, sponsored by

the Waterside/WJCD, will be featured in tonight's holiday parade.

Graphic

Parade Route KEYWORDS: GRAND ILLUMINATION PARADE

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