Senior Nate Whitfield’s favorite part about making balloons is the interactions with people.

“It lights up a kid’s day when they go to the Rainforest Cafe, and they have a face paint of a Spider-Man, and you can make them a Spider-Man [with balloons],” Whitfield said.

Whitfield works with three other Glenbrook North students as an individual contractor for Mind Blowing Balloons where they work as balloon artists at restaurants for tips and private events for an hourly wage.

    Whitfield said he takes pride in his balloons. He enjoys making them, but people tend to misunderstand what he does when he tells them he makes balloons.

“When you tell [people] you make balloons they think of a clown person, like the funny nose,” said Whitfield. “Because I have an apron with all the options, people’s conception of what balloon making is becomes more expanded. Like, ‘Oh that’s really cool you can make a lightsaber or an octopus on a hat.’ This isn’t simple stuff.”

When Whitfield approached senior Leopold Mayer to see if Mayer would work with him, Mayer said he was surprised to find that the balloons he would be making were not simple creations.

“They’re actually really complex, have multiple colors and totally look like the things that they’re supposed to,” said Mayer. “It’s just really cool, really mind blowing.”

Whitfield also asked senior Kate Seno if she would be interested in working as a balloon artist. Seno agreed, and to learn how to put her new skills to use, she participated in two training days at the Rainforest Cafe. On the first day, she shadowed her bosses, and on the second, she said she was allowed to go off on her own to customers’ tables where she tried out the skills she had learned.

“We do this trick where we can break off the balloon for a part we don’t need, but it’s still inflated with air,” said Seno. “We’ll say, ‘Hey, can you hold this for me,’ and then we’ll let it go and be like, ‘Oh no!’ and then we laugh and the parents laugh. But one time I accidentally did that and then it hit the dad in the face. It was so bad. He was like a really intimidating guy too, and I was like, ‘I’m sorry,’ and I apologized four times.”

Seno and Whitfield both notice that the balloons they work with pop often.

“What you learn really quickly is when a balloon pops, because it will regardless of how much you practice, you have to learn how to fix them in the moment, especially when people are waiting and you start to feel like you’ve overstayed your welcome at a table,” said Whitfield. “You just got to improvise and go with it.”

Whitfield said he has put in about six hours a week of practice since February, and the amount of time he dedicates toward practice will increase by the summer.

He said the hard work pays off when he is able to make people balloons they love.

   “I’ve had a couple of guys come and ask me if I could make them a balloon for something special,” Whitfield said.

   Seno said making balloons is a different thing to be involved in, but it is fun to make people happy with the balloons she carries with her.

     “When you walk up to a table and there’s a kid crying and you’re like, ‘Hey, do you want a balloon? sometimes they’re just being kids and they’re like, ‘No,’ and their parents are like, ‘Sure make them a whatever,’” said Seno. “And then you make it for them and they get all smiley. It’s kind of like going to the ice cream shop. It doesn’t matter how you go in, you always leave smiling.”