Local radio station hosts water balloon fight and slip and slide in Estacada on consecutive weekends

When Carol Chapman heard that KUPL, a Portland country music station, was looking for a place to host a water balloon fight, she knew exactly where they needed to look: Estacada.

“I heard it and called the station,” she said. “I ended up coordinating with the station and the DJ in finding the best place to hold it.”

After three hours on the phone, Chapman and the station decided on the field between the junior high and grade school and KUPL agreed to host it there.

After coming to the decision at 7:30 p.m. on July 11, the event was set to take place just 45 minutes later, so Chapman scrambled to spread the word.

While traffic delayed the start of the event until 8:45 p.m., there were 100 people on hand by the time it started and the water balloon fight lasted nearly an hour.

Just seven days later, Estacada was on the mind of KUPL again as this time the station was looking to create a water Slip and Slide with the help of Estacada’s Luke Youngberg.

Through his family’s pump company, Youngberg had helped organize the first event by bringing one of their water pumps.

“A week later he said we’re going for round two,” Chapman said. “He started coordinating with Luke and they built a contraption that could fill up 8-10 balloons at a time.”

This time, the Youngberg’s supplied two water tanks so that another 100 people could join in on the fun and experience a massive Slip and Slide.

The first event was the first of its kind for KUPL and because of the success it had, they’ve since traveled all over Portland with similar events.

“For them to come out here twice was great,” Chapman said. “It was the first time they had ever done this.”