Photo by Red Rock Balloonfest Staff[/caption]

The annual Red Rock Balloonfest included three of the four scheduled hot air balloon launches and big crowds at North Overlook Beach over the weekend.
Mike Buchheit tells KNIA/KRLS News a record number of participants raised funds by participating in the 7th annual Red Rock Balloonfest 5K/10K Saturday morning for the Pella, Knoxville, and Pella Christian Cross Country programs.
“It was a great turnout in a lot of different ways,” he says. “We had great turnout ahead of the event with sponsor support and volunteers signing up and on race day we had a tremendous amount of walkups. We set a new record with 210 participants in the race.”
Knoxville Coach Michael Splavec says the athletes have seen the direct impact of the participants of the race.
“At Knoxville we’ve used them to get tents to take to our meets and keep us kind of sheltered from the rain or whatever could happen at a cross country meet and we’ve used it to buy sweats and new uniforms and other things like that.”
Doug Cutler, head coach of the Pella Cross Country team, says it’s a special event for the area community to come together and enjoy the lake.
“The most satisfying aspect is the unique nature of how the three teams come together, work together — it’s all of Marion County,” he says.
Click here for race results:
http://results.truetimeracing.com/Teams.aspx?CId=16535&RId=483&EId=3http://results.truetimeracing.com/results.aspx?CId=16535&RId=483