From July 28 to August 4, residents and visitors of Highland will find themselves rising to new heights as this year’s Highland Fling strives to elevate all those who participate.

“Our theme this year is ‘We rise by lifting others,'” explained Julie Tapusoa, the Highland City Civic Events Coordinator. “We’re a very service-oriented community, and we’re just celebrating that service. We’re going to do service projects that are focussed both locally and globally.”

As a result of the theme, almost all of the events this year will have a service-related component. For example, the annual family adventure race that has different tasks to complete will feature one of the tasks coordinated with a service project.

“Right now we have four main service events,” Tapusoa said. These events include collecting items for Tabitha’s Way, a local organization which provides food and supplies to an average of 5,000 individuals monthly. Supplies for baby kits, hygiene kits and school kits will be accepted, along with appropriate food items.

“We’ll be doing food drives beginning before the Fling,” said Tapusoa, adding that item collection will take place from July 14 to August 4. We’re really excited about that. We’ll have different donation bins at locations around the city.”

Additional events are partnered with Days for Girls, a Highland-based organization that works to provide girls around the world with better and safer access to menstrual supplies, and Elevita, which was founded by a Highland family to help underprivileged artisans find a market for their products.

The Highland Fling will also team up with Courage Reins, an equestrian center in Highland that serves children with disabilities, to run the 5K & 1-Mile Fun Run, which they’re calling “Trot for Courage.”

“They will be incorporating horses into the races and participants can stop at watering troughs along the route,” Tapusoa said. “Some of the proceeds of the races will go to Courage Reins to continue their efforts to ‘lifting others’ through equine activity.” The races will be held on Saturday, Aug. 4 and will begin and end at the Courage Reins facility.

“I think it’s just a really common theme about our community about how much service is given,” Tapusoa said. “There’s just such a feeling of that and I just got thinking about that.

In addition to the service projects, some of the returning attractions this year include the annual Scottish games, a drive-in movie for youth night, an arena talk with Cactus Jack, a space-themed cardboard challenge for kids, a strongman competition, baby contest, fireworks, and of course, the parade.

New this year, and tying in with the uplifting theme of this year’s event are eight hot air balloons that will launch every morning and the opportunity for hot air balloon rides.

“The balloons will come back saturday night for a balloon glow which will be very spectacular,” Tapusoa said. “I’m really excited for all the service projects we’ve got going, but also the balloons. I just have such a love for them. That symbolism of rising by lifting other, it’ll really pull it all together for the whole week.”

Additional details about the Highland Fling are available at http://www.highlandcity.org/index.aspx?NID=169.