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Our Four Balloon Weathervane was first commissioned by a family wanting a balloon named for each of its members; the mother, father, and two children. In the pictures you can just make out the year of birth pennies and the name plates at the base of each balloon. We have another of this vane in production for spring that came about in such a charming way, as part of an Eagle Scout and Girl Scout Gold project. Here they tell their story:
I showed my parents the email and picture and we all agree that the balloon weathervane is perfect! It will appeal to the kids, and we believe they will smile every time they look at it! Balloons make children happy and that is the whole point of the garden, to make the children happy! I was not aware that they came in different sizes, and this will be perfect…Thank you!
My parents wanted me to tell you a little more… See I have an older brother Michael who is working on his Eagle Scout award, and I have a twin sister Jaime and a younger sister Kaitlyn who are both working on their Girl Scout gold awards. So all four of us decided to do separate projects that will come together to do something really big for the children at little flower. We wanted to really make a difference.
See when my mom was a little girl, she had a best friend, a little girl around the corner. Her mommy didn’t take good care of her, and one day my mom had to move to the island but promised her she would come back to visit. When she came to visit, she brought her the bike she outgrew but her mom said she wasn’t there and she wouldn’t tell her where she was. My mom and my grandma searched but never found her. Twenty five years later my mom looked her up on the computer and found her, and found out that she was taken away and placed to live at little flower. My mom never forgot her, and told her that she had wanted to give her her bike but couldn’t find her.
My brother and sisters all agreed that we wanted to help the kids that live there in her best friends memory. We wanted to make a real difference. So my sister is building raised planter beds for the flowers, my brother is raising the money for the deer proof fence to fence around the garden to protect it for the kids, my other sister is going to build handicap accessible planters and benches with an arbor, and an outside library with books to encourage the kids to read around the flowers! I’m going to build the potting shed and donate the tools and supplies, and build a picnic table with a game top for the kids to sit and play while enjoying the garden. We all are going to buy and plant the flowers and plants…. And add things like wind chimes for music, and bird houses and more! Because there are four of us it’s going to have a huge impact on the kids.
When it’s all done, we will send you an article about it. We plan to have our town newspaper write a story about it! Of course we will mention you and your company graciously donating the weathervane! We will also give you a certificate signed by us and little flower upon completion of the projects. My mom has a nice camera and will send you a picture of it once it’s completed!
I’m excited to learn about the personalization, please allow me to think about it a bit, but can you please tell me what the lucky pennies are that you mentioned. I don’t know what they are. Thank you.
‘Lucky Pennies‘ is a tradition involving weathervanes. The original Victorian practice was to include a penny from the year the weather vane was made inside the sculpture piece. Because copper is non-ferrous, weathervanes still exist today that were created over one hundred or more years ago. If you are very lucky, you might even find an Indian Head copper penny inside one of these charming vintage vanes. At West Coast Weather Vanes we have extended this custom to also adding pennies from important dates to our customers. For this weathervane we included a penny from each child’s year of birth in a balloon, and one from the birth year of the girlhood best friend who grew up at Little Flower Orphanage.
Three Balloon Weathervane
Or customers for both the of these swell-bodied weathervanes chose to have optional gold leafing on some of the balloons to add brightness and distinction as the sculpture piece weathers through the browns and eventually patinas.
If you have a special project or dream of a weather vane to express your passion, we would love to discuss it with you. Each of our weather vanes is custome crafted to order and we happily work with our customers to customize or design a weathervane to express their vision.