Pilots take their best shot during Friends and Lovers competition flight; beloved crew member remembered

Friends & Lovers finally takes flight in Rio Rancho

RIO RANCHO — Saturday morning may have marked the second year the Friends and Lovers Balloon…

RIO RANCHO — As Breezy Cannaday watched the skies over Rio Rancho Sunday morning, she couldn’t help but think of her mom, Shelly Cannaday.

After passing away in June 2024, Shelly, a Rio Rancho resident was the first person to posthumously named co-Balloonmeistern of the Friends and Lovers Balloon Rally, hosted by the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association (Quad A). A release from the organization describes Shelly as a well-known member of the target team.

“It is fitting to honor Shelly Cannaday as Co-Balloonmeistern because Friends and Lovers celebrates the crews who make ballooning possible,” said Kristelle Siarza, special events chair for Quad A. “Shelly was a phenomenal crew member and passionate about teaching others how to safely and emphatically support our pilots.”

Shelly shared the honor with co-Balloonmeistern Peg Billson, a former education chair and longtime member of Quad A. She serves on the board of two publicly traded multi-national companies and has served as launch director, safety officer and pilot for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

This year marked the first time the organization named co-Balloonmeisterns, which is a term of German origin that is prestigious in the ballooning community. It refers to the person responsible for coordinating and overseeing all ballooning activities during an event. Traditionally, a woman fills the position at the Friends and Lovers Balloon Rally, illustrating its commitment to female leadership and inclusion in aviation.

Sunday morning, Breezy and her dad, Alan, were at the target put down in the arroyo near Unser and Northern boulevards, waiting for pilots to take their shot at the giant white X. The Cannadays and a handful of others had been assigned the task of measuring which markers tossed by the pilots from their balloons were the closest.

“We were all dedicated crew. Both my parents had been ballooning since the 1980s,” Breezy said, saying she’s been ballooning since the age of 5.

While the weather was great for flying, it wasn’t great for the competition, which also had another target set up on the campus of Rio Rancho High School. Many balloons floated to the left and right of the target, with only one pilot attempting a shot in the first hour. However, it wasn’t within a measurable distance.

Much of the measuring team made its way over to RRHS, where pilots weren’t having much better luck with the target.

As the competition wound up at RRHS, Breezy spoke about how touched she was her mother had been named co-Balloonmesitern for Friends and Lovers.

“There’s no words to describe it,” she said. “It meant a lot, and it really shows how much my mom meant to people.”

“I was excited when they told me they were doing that,” Alan chimed in. “She touched more lives in this ballooning community ... It was a pretty hard hit around here.”

“She was mama to everybody. They called her ‘Mama Shelly,’” Breezy noted, going on to say that her mom had a particular commitment to Friends and Lovers. As a Tupperware representative and an avid crocheter, Shelly was big on donating items to the event’s silent auction every year. In fact, Breezy and Alan found ample supplies stored around the house and brought them for this year’s event as a way to “keep Mama a part of it.”

Breezy also spoke of the closeness of the ballooning community. “As long as I’ve been ballooning, the ballooning community is my family. I have a lot of motherly figures from the community.”

That was also evident Sunday morning, as the scorers who were watching the skies from the targets spotted and identified chase vehicles, balloons and their pilots from a distance. Time after time, they would pick out a balloon, name the pilot and share a tidbit or personal story about them.

And, of course, there was conversation about the weather. Friends and Lovers had great weather for flying, especially compared to last year, which marked the event’s return to Rio Rancho. The balloons got grounded by snow and other winter weather last year.

“Mom gave us good weather,” Breezy said.