Sky's the Limit

Twin Cities non-profit Kitegang brings gifts of flight and fun to children in war-torn regions

Minneapolis native Patrick McGrann founded Kitegang in 2007 to feed children’s recreation and social development needs.

Image credit: Kitegang

By: Molly Pichler

Imagine a dusty, makeshift playground with no swings or monkey bars. The “jungle gym” consists of the remnants of a bombed-out building. Prickly bushes brush against kids’ ankles. The seesaw is a 2-by-4 atop a stack of cement bricks. This is a familiar scene for children in war-torn and impoverished countries, and Twin Cities-based non-profit Kitegang is working to change that.
Minneapolis native Patrick McGrann founded Kitegang in 2007. The former United Nations worker says he saw many charities addressing food, water and shelter needs in developing countries, but none was attending to an equally important issue: children’s recreation and social development. McGrann approached longtime friend (and self-proclaimed “fund-raiser by nature”) Christopher Neher, also of Minneapolis, about starting a non-profit toy company—one that would bring the fun of kites to children in harsh environments like Iraq, Darfur and Somalia.
“Kites are easy and versatile—and disarming,” McGrann writes from Gaza City, where he is helping rebuild the American International School (which was bombed by Israeli military forces in 2009). “We’ve gotten into a lot of volatile areas because those in control weren’t threatened by kites.”
With the help of private donations, federal grants and on-the-ground assistance from other charities, McGrann and Kitegang’s 20-plus volunteers bring materials into developing countries—mainly in Africa and the Middle East—and teach kids how to make kites, which they then either keep or give away to children in other developing countries. It’s a process that provides them with a useful skill and a source of entertainment. Kitegang also organizes community events in the countries it serves—places where fun is not exactly a part of everyday life. The non-profit’s 2007 Darfur Kite Festival attracted more than 10,000 participants, and kites were even taken the night before the festival by children excited to play with them, Neher recalls.
Inspired by this enthusiastic response, Kitegang has since expanded to include more countries in the Middle East. While McGrann currently resides in Gaza, Neher maintains the organization’s headquarters back in Minneapolis, and Kitegang continues to look for ways (yo-yo and skateboard projects are both in the works) to bring some joy to impoverished youth around the world.