Submitted photo
Kay Buesing and Jim Mockford at the World Kite Museum with the Chinese dragon kite trophy
Mockford won in 1987.
Jim Mockford presenting his children’s book, ‘The Kite That Touched the Sky,’ to Alexis Hood at
Ilwaco Timberland Library.
Continued from Page 6
things. She soon became the go-to person,
working a kind of worldwide kite diplo-
macy, and put Long Beach front and cen-
ter in the international kite community. For
Kay, being involved in every aspect of the
festivals and the museum was her life.”
A memorial for Buesing was planned for
the Washington State International Kite Fes-
tival in 2021, but was canceled due to the
coronavirus.
“But I wanted to do something,” Mock-
ford said. “I thought sharing my love of
kite fl ying, as illustrated in ‘The Kite That
Touched the Sky,’ would encourage and
help children know the joy that we both
knew so well.”
Mockford donated his children’s book,
“The Kite that Touched the Sky,” to the
Pacifi c branches of the Timberland Regional
Library.
Alexis Hood, library assistant at the
Ilwaco branch, said Mockford simply
walked into the library with his books and
asked what the process might be to make
them available to young readers.
“We were certainly excited about it,”
Hood said . “The book has beautiful illustra-
tions of our local area that kids will be sure
to recognize. It’s a book that needs to be in
our community.”
Mockford’s intergenerational storybook
was inspired by his four grandchildren, two
of whom live in China, and all of whom he
calls the “newest generation of kitefl iers.”
The book exemplifi es that kite fl ying knows
no cultural boundaries. It is available in both
Chinese and English languages.
After a month of library system process-
ing, “The Kite That Touched the Sky” is
now in circulation in the library children’s
sections at Ilwaco, Ocean Park, Naselle,
Raymond, South Bend and Shoalwater Bay.
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 // 7