Some of the top names in the skies are coming to Ames this weekend for a benefit for the Boys and Girls Club of Ames.

The third annual Summer Breeze Benefit begins Friday and ends Sunday, said Geff Gescheidler, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club.

The benefit’s events include a Meet the Champion Hour where notable ISU athletes including Cael Sanderson, Seneca Wallace, shotputter Lisa Griebel and wrestler Chris Bono will meet the public side by side with some of the top balloonists in the country, said Sharon Granzow, volunteer and director of the balloon race.

There will be a sandwich-and-chips dinner and stage activities on Friday, and a tenderloin community dinner and a performance by the Bob Weast Big Band on Saturday, Gescheidler said.

The Hershey Kiss Mobile will also be on hand, distributing chocolate kisses.

On both nights, light colored balloons will perform a “nite-glow”, where the balloons’ burners are ignited, lighting the balloon from the inside, said Dennis Anderson, Boys and Girls Club of Ames volunteer.

“It looks like Chinese lanterns,” he said.

All events will take place at the Boys and Girls Club of Ames, 210 S. 5th St.

With the exception of food and the “big jumping thing” and other inflatable children’s games, all the weekend events will be free, Gescheidler said.

Donations are welcome, as it is the Club’s main fundraising event, Granzow said.

This weekend, 44 balloonists will be racing at the event, 15 of them Iowans competing in the North America Balloon Association-sanctioned championship, Anderson said.

This is the first year that the race has been sanctioned by the association, and that has almost doubled the number of participants from last year’s 25.

Balloonists are coming from nine states for the weekend of racing, Gescheidler said.

The races are actually tests of piloting skill, Anderson said.

Typically, a race consists of large targets placed on the ground in locations that are roughly in the direction of the wind. Each pilot has several 2-ounce bags with six-foot tails that they try to drop as close to the center of the target as possible, Anderson said.