Wednesday 11 January 2017

Benny Bear has a winner!

Shine's Benny Bear New Year balloon race, sponsored by Larkfleet Homes and Allison Homes, has ended - and the winner is a balloon entered by Hugh Downey and Co which travelled a fantastic 1,266 km in the 'virtual world'.



Second and third places (with distances of 1,229 km and 1,210 km) were balloons from company Systems in  Micro. When you think that there were over 5,000 balloons in the race, to get two in the first three places is pretty impressive!

The balloon race has raised more than £70,000 for Shine, the Peterborough charity which provides specialist support for anyone living with spina bifida and/or hydrocephalus, as well as to their parents, families and carers.

Benny Bear (featured in the photo above) is the Shine ‘mascot’, a character who has hydrocephalus and works with children to raise awareness of the condition and its impact.

Shine runs several online balloon races each year to help raise money for its work. The Shine computer takes account of real-world weather conditions and factors such as the amount of gas in each balloon as it continuously calculates the position of each race entrant following the online ‘launch’. The winning balloon is the one that travels furthest on the virtual map.

Helen Jones, director of marketing at Larkfleet, said: “We were to delighted to sponsor The Benny Bear New Year Race as part of our programme of support for local communities and charities."

A full list of the balloons and the distances they travelled is here if you want to check it out and maybe see how your own balloon did.

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