Man proposes to girlfriend via hot air balloon

Ross Green decided only a few weeks ago to propose to his girlfriend of two years, Jena Epping during the Lincoln Balloon Festival. (For the Pantagraph, Patty Welander)

Monday, August 27, 2007 4:01 PM CDT

By Patti Welander
p.welander@mchsi.com

LINCOLN — Did she say yes? Ross Green decided only a few weeks ago to propose to his girlfriend of two years, Jena Epping, during the Lincoln Art and Balloon Festival balloon glow, using a balloon co-owned by his father.

After several weeks of work and some bad weather, he got his answer Saturday night when Epping read a banner attached to the “Good Greeph” balloon and started to cry.

She said yes.

Green is enrolled in the Illinois State Police Academy and is home only on weekends. He relied on his parents, Bob and Beth Green, to help make the proposal a reality. Bob Green spent a week trying to contact a banner manufacturer and, when that failed, went to three places to get enough material for the banner.

Then Beth Green and her friends spent “countless” hours sewing material together and attaching four-foot letters to read “Jena, will you marry me?”

Green had planned the proposal for Friday night’s balloon glow, but the weather didn’t cooperate. On Saturday, wind delayed the night’s launch. It was getting dark when the balloon arrived at the airport for the glow, when tethered balloons are inflated and lit from inside.

The crew quickly put the banner on the balloon and then inflated the balloon with the banner away from the crowd. They turned the balloon around so it would be visible to Epping, who was among the crowd of spectators.