Ping pong drop an adventure

ROYAL CITY – The annual SummerFest ping pong ball drop, which Royal Slope kids love, had become sort of ho-hum.

A plane flew over the park and dropped 300 ping pong balls, each representing a prize. Kids were limited to one ball, one prize.

The rules were the same last Saturday, but there was a twist. The pilot missed the target.

“Nobody saw the plane,” organizer Leslie Fanning said.

It must have been flying high. No one heard it either.

A call was made and, indeed, the drop had been made, with the plane flying north to south over the park. No one saw the balls. So it was assumed they drifted with Royal's prevailing westerly wind.

Kids, and some adults, combed the open field east of the park. They got dusty, sweaty and dirty. Then Fanning announced that balls had been found in the open area west of the park.

“There are 300 balls. There are enough for everybody. You don't have to rush,” Fanning said.

The kids scrambled any way, sprinting from east of the park to the west side.

Minutes later, there was another Fanning announcement. Some of the balls were on the roof of a building next to the park.

“The owner is coming. Soon it will be raining ping pong balls,” she said.

Eventually, about 300 kids had ping pong balls. The grand prize winners were Jesus Fuentes and Kenia Orth.