By Angie Hutschreider

Drone show: Realization of a “dream” will “create lasting memories for both communities”.

Friday night the Marceline Tigers will host the Brookfield Bulldogs at Chester Ray Stadium for the annual and always-anticipated Bell Game.

This year the half-time show will look much different than any before it, and will go down in history books as one of-a kind-event not only at the rivalry game, but also as a first for northern Missouri.

This feat is thanks to the “dream” and hard work of one local teenager Local Kitchen.

Kitchen a senior at Marceline R-V and a cheerleader recently said that the idea of having a drone show at the game came to her when she was brainstorming ideas for the assembly.

“My grade has been through a lot of really good football – like State – we have a lot of good memories,” she said. “And I was thinking how to make it special and then it hit me. The drone show at the state fair was so great and I thought that I should try and bring a drone show to the football game.”

Kitchen soon began researching companies that performed drone shows and sent numerous emails. Most responses she got back were automated, until she heard back from Northern Lights Drone Shows – the same company that coordinated the drone show at this year’s state fair.

“I reached out and they said the custom drone show I was thinking about was about $20,000 and of course that was very unrealistic,” Kitchen said. “As we were talking I told them about Bell Game history and USA Today naming it High School Sports’ Best Rivalry competition. I gave them the whole debriefing about how big this is for our two communities as a whole and that this game was a big deal for us and the drone show would only add to that.”

Kitchen said it was never an option in her mind for the drone show not to happen. Before reaching an agreement with Northern Lights Drone Shows she had already spoken to her cheer coach, school and athletic administration and had the support of numerous local businesses and civic organizations.

Then staff at Northern Lights Drone Shows reached out to her and said they would do the show – for free.

“I was so excited – I got to school and just had to tell everyone,” she recalled.

Lindsey Havard, Lola’s mom, said up until this point Lola had done all of the work herself, but at this point school officials and Havard got involved helping coordinate the event and accommodations for the four employees of Northern Lights Drone Shows.

“Once local businesses and groups heard about what Lola was doing everyone really got behind the effort and have stepped up helping with everything they could for the crew and to make sure everything needed at the event is taken care of,” Havard said.

Leonor Ortiz the only female pilot for Northern Lights Drone Shows and one of four staff members coming to Marceline to coordinate and host the drone show said, “For our company it is about making memories that are worth repeating – for us it is just about making memories. Doing this for the schools is worth it to just see the smiles on the face of the students and community – we wouldn’t want to have it any other way.”

After a design company in Texas does the initial illustrations based off the clients ideas, designers with Northern Lights spent three weeks working to perfect the 14 minutes show, that will use 200 drones.

“The drones connected to GPS and then connected to the computer – on a grid with one meter spacing where a grid with one meter spacing allows the pilot to see the the patterns and paths,” Ortiz said. It will take crews two-three hours to set up the drones before the show.

Crews will be available before and after the game to speak with community members.

Havard said the show is viewable in town of Marceline including outside of football stadium however, depending on where residents are watching the show in the sky, words and images may appear inverted.

“It is like a 360 design in the air but there is a front and back,” Havard said. “The best view will be in the stadium, which is the front view looking over the student parking lot or looking from east of the stadium.”