If you want to have a great time celebrating the arrival of spring in April, you're invited to join the biggest kite happening ever planned in North America!
The AKA (American Kitefliers Association), in cooperation with the KTAI (Kite Trade Association International)
has declared April to be National Kite Month.
 

Goals

Our goal is to have 600 kite events worldwide during National Kite Month. An event doesn't have to be a big festival; we encourage local fun flies, kitemaking workshops, indoor flies, buggy races, kite displays in public libraries and malls, and school demonstrations.

We urge individual enthusiasts, local kite clubs, local service clubs, schools, parks and AKA or KTAI members all to plan and organize events. To make this possible, the National Kite Month Headquarters will provide logistical support.

 

About The NKM Site

National Kite Month is a year long effort by kite professionals, enthusiasts, supporters, manufacturers, and friends to promote the wonderful qualities that kite flying has to offer people of all ages & physical ability levels. Kiting is truly a universal activity, limited only by the imagination.

To further our mission, this web site is being updated constantly to provide the most comprehensive, accessible resource available to kite enthusiasts around the world. If you have suggestions, please contact us!

The Resources for Teachers section is designed to help an elementary school teacher present a short unit on kites, including doing a simple classroom kitemaking workshop. If you want to build a kite, look on the Plans page. To celebrate the Wright Brothers first flight, use the resources on the History page.

If you want to buy kites, you can use the Retailer page to find a kite shop in your area, or just click here to jump to a terrific on-line source.

 

What You Can Do

There are a number of ways you can get involved. Although the list is as endless as the human imagination, some examples of what you can do include;

• Supporting the big events through attending or volunteering!
• Becoming a Kite Advocate!
• Organizing a local fly! Or, organize a few events throughout the month...the more the better!!
• Contacting your local store and offering to help them with a reception!
• Scheduling an indoor kite demonstration! (A REAL MEDIA DRAW!)
• Contacting your local library or shopping mall and offer to help set up a kite display for the month!
• Posting kite information (& links to this site and others) on your web sites!
• Lobbying your local park district to keep wide open spaces for kiters!
• Calling your local school, park district, or public library and offering to present a kite workshop!
• Contacting your local hobby shop and ask them to carry kites! Be sure to give them the link to the KTA!
• Emailing CNN, ESPN, or any of the other major networks and ask them to show footage of kiting!
• Inviting your local celebrities (Mayors, Athletes, Police Officers, Etc) to try kiting (Don't forget to get the media there)!
• Organizing a kite fly as part of a fund raising project for charity!
• Inviting members of other established community action groups to attend a kite fly (Kiwanis, Girl & Boy Scouts, Jaycees, etc.)!

What We Can Do To Help

According to the AKA's past president David Gomberg, National Kite Month is designed to reach as many people as possible. “What we need” says Gomberg “is for as many members as possible to organize simple festivals, workshops and fun flies. Imagine, if only one-in-ten AKA members visits a classroom, or registers an event, that will be 400 programs across the country -- each reaching dozens or more people and generating kite media”.

To accomplish these goals, National Kite Month Headquarters will provide the following direct services:

• Instructions for registering and organizing a participating kite festival.
• Instructions for organizing a school kite making project.
• An official National Kite Month logo.

Contact the National Ofice to register your National Kite Month (NKM) event. To help us help your event be successful, you need to register all National Kite Month activities (by April 1st) and allow us to update our master calendar.

You can reach NKM at www.nationalkitemonth.org

 

And don't forget... fly a kite and celebrate the sky!