Moapa Valley Residents Wage Water War In Park

By NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

It was an all-out neighborhood battle on Saturday night at the Overton Park. Over 60 local residents waged water war against each other on the lawn of the park. Everything from airstrikes, to sling launches, to guns, to tosses, resulting in everyone fully soaked. It was a community water balloon fight for the record books.

The idea of the event came from Bernie Conrique, owner of Kuppa Joe’s mobile coffee shop. Conrique posted the idea on social media including a date, time and location for a water balloon war. The first post was on August 7 and the event was billed as the Moapa Valley 1st Annual Water Balloon Fight.

“I decided on arranging this so people could get out and do something,” said Conrique. “We have so much negativity and stress going on right now and we just need to get together and remember what it is like to be happy.”

Preparations and pre-attacks began taking place as soon as the event was posted. Kuppa Joe was nailed with notes and messages including everything from little mischievous pranks to pics of “talking smack.”

On the evening of the event, people started arriving a little before 6:00 pm in Overton Park and began setting up. At about 6:30 pm, they started laying out the options of the battle. It was planned out to be Overton vs. Logandale vs. Moapa. But it ended up devolving into every man, woman and child for themselves.

To add a little punch to the carnage, several warriors brought water cannons, water guns, super soakers, and more to add to the water desolation of victims. Cries of hits were followed up by laughter and the shouts of adventure filled the air.

“We came extra prepared!” laughed Devlin Foley of the Freedom Renovations Crew. “A thousand balloons in ice cold water from 30 bags of ice.”

Even the MVHS Foreign Exchange Students attended, brought by Dean and Brooklyn Redd. When asked about how the water balloon fight was, most of those students smiled and gave a thumbs up.

The Kuppa Joe truck was present at the event to provide drinks and hydration for everyone. LVMPD Officer Dominic Drosos arrived and brought a huge bucket of water balloons for the kids to use. He even took a couple of air strike shots while handing out stickers to the kids. MVFD Captain Chance Munford was also present.

When the last water balloon was finally thrown, the participants of the great war picked up all of the pieces of balloons and other trash and then departed with smiles on their faces. Conriqueand the other adults talked about doing the same thing about once a month instead of waiting until next year.

“We had a blast at the water balloon fight today,” said Bonnie Kelli. “Definitely need to do this a lot more often. What a great inexpensive way to get together and play. Thank you to everyone who came out.”