Please don't release balloons at memorials or celebrations!

[ArielRae]

I recently have been seeing a lot of memorials on the news lately and seeing them all releasing balloons in memory. As nice as a thought this may seem remember these balloons just don’t disappear. They can end up injuring or killing animals that want to play with or eat them unknowingly. Innocent animals shouldn’t die cause you are mourning your loved one dying.

 

[georgina]

I cringe when I see that on TV also. Plus, while the helium supply has come back a bit in the last year, there are more important uses for it than balloons.

 

[stsomewhere]

or the memorial floating lanterns. One fell into my neighbors backyard. and started a fire.Luckily were were outside and had seen it crash. So we were able to go across the street and tell them it to put it out.

 

[wombat_5606]

Thanks, @ArielRae for this post. It is such a sad thing that people think potentially killing something else and polluting our earth is a decent way to memorialize someone.

 

[JimMIA]

Here in Miami, helium filled balloons are a big problem for Everglades National Park. Most of the balloons are from birthday parties.

The park lies to the west of Miami and our prevailing winds are from the southeast. So the balloons go up, drift to the west or northwest, the helium leaks out and they eventually fall in the middle of the Everglades.

Birds especially are attracted to them, and rangers often find dead birds who got tangled up in a balloon and suffocated.

 

[tex1989]

Mylar balloons are terrible as well. They are able to conduct electrical current and if the land on power lines and transformers and cause fires and power outages.

 

[CarolAnn856]

Excellent post and reminder to those who either (somehow) don’t know or forget things like this!

 

[belleatdisney]

Thank goodness they were able to help that seal. I have never understood the attraction of setting balloons free.

 

[JimMIA]

Thank goodness they were able to help that seal. I have never understood the attraction of setting balloons free.

Except for the Chinese lanterns, I don't think most of them are "set free." They just get loose and float skyward by accident.

 

[RogueX]

My husband flies a helicopter and has said on more than one occasion they've had an encounter with a balloon to be dangerous.

 

[georgina]

Except for the Chinese lanterns, I don't think most of them are "set free." They just get loose and float skyward by accident.

They are pretty common at memorials and celebrations, including at the Indy 500 every year.

https://partyworldwide.net/indy-500-continues-balloon-release-tradition/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marsha...is-terrible-for-the-environment/#6bae70dd41b6

 

[belleatdisney]

I have seen it at funerals/memorials. They put a message in/on the balloons and let them go up on purpose. Ugh.

 

[monsterkitty]

My BIL and SIL release balloons on the anniversary of my death. It drives me bonkers.

 

[emer95]

My BIL and SIL release balloons on the anniversary of my death. It drives me bonkers.

I’m thinking you forgot a word here? Or you’re posting from Heaven.

 

[allieann87]

Great reminder!

 

[chickapin parterre]

Thank goodness they were able to help that seal. I have never understood the attraction of setting balloons free.

Because American culture, in particular WASP grouping, has no culture of mourning. Sitting in a pew for a few hours is still a very empty experience. But if you meet every year with a group of folks who lost their children, releasing balloons forms a community of grief that has companionship and ritual.....and release from the pain. Tending to a gravestone just does not do it anymore.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I’m thinking you forgot a word here? Or you’re posting from Heaven.

Way to give her benefit of the doubt.

 

[chickapin parterre]

Way to give her benefit of the doubt.

best post of the day on community forum.

 

[Diana Lyn]

My daughter did her Girl Scout Gold Award project on this topic. Balloons Don't Go To Heaven.

 

[easyas123]

I'm not exactly a crunchy tree hugger, and I admit up until a few years ago I didn't give it a lot of thought, and it wasn't something we did so it wasn't on my radar. Then a few years ago my MIL insisted everyone release balloons at her Mothers funeral and it didn't make sense to me to be littering as a form of memorial! The county we live in banned releasing balloons, although we still find tangled in the trees or crops of our farm- or run over in the tractor - on average 1 of these balloons per month.