As students craned their necks to gaze at the red, blue and yellow hot air balloon flying over Flavet Field on Friday, they were encouraged to think about what lifts them up.
UF’s Bateman team brought the balloon for their Onward and Upward event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday to catch the eyes of passing students. It kicked off the public relations team’s monthlong Mind the Gap campaign for the 2017 Bateman Case Study Competition. The campaign aims to change people’s perceptions of mental health in Gainesville, said Paige Arnold, a member of the team.
About 15 students attended and participated in the event’s mental-health awareness activities.
Arnold, a 24-year-old UF public relations senior, said the balloon was to draw students to the event and encourage them to think about mental health. But it’s also a symbol of release.
“It’s about really kind of letting your worries float away,” she said.
The “gap” in the Mind the Gap campaign refers to the disparity between how people in Gainesville may value physical health over mental health, Arnold said.
Bob Carlton, the owner of Balloons and Beyond, disassembles his hot air balloon on Flavet Field after about an hour and half of balloon rides on Friday. Carlton volunteered to bring his balloon to help raise awareness of mental health at the Onward and Upward event, hosted by the UF Bateman team.
In one activity designed to close the gap, students wrote phrases about what made them stressed on a balloon and then popped it. They then wrote on a card something that lifts them up, placing the cards in a replica of a hot air balloon’s wicker basket.
Claire Hodges, a UF sustainability and the built environment freshman, wrote “my Diff Eq exam,” referencing a test in her Elementary Differential Equations class. Hodges, 18, said she dealt with depression about a year and a half ago and knows how easily mental health can be overlooked, especially in college.
“It’s easy to let something slip,” she said. “You are a priority: not your grades, not your friends.”
Aryssa Tognozzi, a UF animal sciences senior, said she wrote “School” and “Life” on her balloon because of her daunting post-graduation future. She compared the hot air balloon to the balloon she popped in her hand.
“I’ve always seen balloons as a sign of letting go in your life,” Tognozzi said. “They’ve always represented something of release.”
Arnold said UF has never had a hot air balloon launched from campus before, but Bob Carlton, the owner of the company operating the balloon Friday, came close in 1982. Floating over Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Carlton watched the UF vs. University of Southern California football game from above — in a balloon that read, “Trojans pop under pressure.”
Carlton and his pilot Drew Barrett set up and flew the hot air balloon Friday until about 12:30 p.m., when the outside temperature became too hot to operate it efficiently.
Carlton said he was more than willing to volunteer his time and resources. He liked the idea of using a large hot air balloon to draw attention to the importance and validity of mental health, because the balloon stands out against the sky above UF.
“It’s a great visual,” he said. “Everyone loves a balloon.”
Arnold said everyone should be aware of their mental health, not just those who struggle with mental illness.
“Everyone has mental health, and it does not mean mental illness,” she said. “We should treat it the same as we do our physical self, because they go hand in hand. We need a balance.”
A hot air balloon flew over Flavet Field on Friday. The balloon was brought by UF’s Bateman team, a group of public relations students, to kick off their monthlong campaign advocating for mental-health awareness.
