Marco Island children send art to the skies at inaugural Kite Festival

Had Ben Franklin been able to attend, he would have beamed with approval.

America's most famous flier of kites would have gotten quite a charge out of watching creative youngsters of all ages assembling — and then sending skyward when the light breezes allowed — simply engineered air foils at the inaugural Marco Island Kite Festival June 24 at Mackle Park.

The event was a function of the City of Marco Island Parks & Recreation Department and the Art League of Marco Island.

Kite-making kits and supplies were provided for the three-hour morning affair that attracted about 100 energetic participants. The island kite fest was held in conjunction with similar festivals around the country that same day, according to Kay Sager, the city parks and recreation program specialist overseeing the event.

She said flying kites takes us back to the simple pleasures of life.

"Flying a kite just brings out the kid in you. It's something we did as kids and it's just exciting seeing them aloft," Sager said. "It's very tranquil. I think that when you are flying a kite, you always see everybody smiling.

"The thing is, I think the things we used to enjoy as children, we should continue to do them throughout life," she added. "That's anything, from flying kites to skipping along.

Anything like that."

While a handful brought commercially made kites, those who colored and assembled theirs that morning exhibited sheer delight once they finally saw their kites in the air.

"Flyin' a kite by yourself is hard to do," said 10-year-old Cara Brown as she sought the assistance of a "co-pilot" to help hold her brightly colored kite in the air for launching.

The kids seemed to have just as much fun decorating the kites as they did flying them.

They used crayons to make their designs on the pre-cut plastic material braced by a wooden stick on each "wing."

The kite of Tommie Barfield Elementary max7beanstudent Petyon King, 9, was only appropriate, given her name. She colored a royal-blue crown with the words "King Kite" underneath.

Alexis Lanham, a 15-year-old sophomore-to-be at Barron Collier High, supported her fellow Cougars with a blue-striped design, complete with rows of cougar paws.

Jamie Thibodeaux, a 15-year-old who will be a freshman at Gulf Coast High when school resumes in August, was inspired by her love of the University of Florida Gators.

"Our whole family is a bunch of Gator fans," she said, adding to the finishing touches to the orange Gators logo and the words "Go Gators!"

Of course the artwork done by the younger kite-makers such as 2½-year-old twins Luca and Rocky Gurgenidze and the brother-sister duo of Gabrielle and Corwin Sampson, age 9 and 5 respectively, was more basic.

Sager turned the session into a bit of a history lesson, providing background on Ben Franklin and talking about some of the uses of kites other than for recreation.

On this day, though, there were no kites suitable for espionage military missions or manned flight.

Nor did anyone attempt tying a key to his or her kite string the way the history-making Franklin did.

The most unusual pre-made kite brought to the event was American eagle that Jay Warner displayed. From Burke, Va., near Washington D.C., he is visiting his grandparents, John and Rosellen Warner of Marco Island.

Warner's kite had a wingspan of about four feet. And ironically, it was an American eagle than landed in the United States by way of China.

"My wife and I actually bought that kite in Tiananman Square in Beijing about three years ago," John Warner said.

"This is the first time anybody has actually tried to fly it."

The task would have been a pinch easier had breezes picked up a bit. Yet Jay Warner was successful in getting the eagle airborne even if only briefly.

Of course no day of kite flying would be routine without an interruption by the proverbial "Kite Eating Tree" made famous in the Charlie Brown comic strip.

Brandon Cardin's kite soared over a tree near the park's covered pavilion and the string became entangled in the branches.

Sager and Cardin's mother came to the rescue, however, by cutting the string and tying it back together.

Within minutes, Cardin was back out in the middle the field in high gear, running with his kite tailing along in the air behind him.

There were more than enough cookies to go around and refreshing orange drink was provided by McDonald's, which also gave each kite-maker in attendance a coupon for a free ice cream sundae.

The day had kind of a back-to-the-future feel.

"Kites are never, ever going to go out of style," Sager said.