Boy Hits Big Time With Gator’s Aid

Stefano Pecci was the hero of his kindergarten class Wednesday. He brought a 75-foot alligator for show and tell.

The creature is a novelty balloon designed by a friend of the youngster’s mother. “It’s very tall,” the 5-year-old observed amid the excited squeals of his classmates at Northwood Elementary. “It’s taller than houses.”

The designer, Greg Sadler, said Stefano actually gave him the idea for the balloon. He saw the youngster playing a game called Gator Golf and was inspired to create the giant reptile.

Part-owner of a San Diego company called Big Events, which makes novelty balloons for parades and special events, Sadler had been commissioned to create an entry for the London Grand Christmas Parade on Nov. 24.

“It’s their Macy’s parade,” Sadler said, “and they wanted something on the Peter Pan theme. Stefano was playing with the game, and I said, ‘Hey, can I borrow it?’ ”

The balloon, five months in the making, is 75 feet long, 18 feet wide and 14 feet high when inflated. It has a green back, yellow belly and bright purple, pink and red mouth.

Bringing it to school for show and tell was Stefano’s idea, but Sadler helped. He took the 200-pound inflatable to the school playground, laid it out on the asphalt and inflated it with a fan. About 200 students in kindergarten through third grade then got a close look at it.

“I think it’s fabulous,” said Stefano’s teacher, Carol Barbee. “The kids are thrilled. Stefano is the hero of the day, possibly of the week. His sharing today will be pretty hard to beat.”

The teacher also saw educational potential in the experience.

“It stimulates further creativity and imagination,” Barbee said. “We’ll do some stories and drawings--we’ll probably incorporate it into our science lesson and talk about reptiles.”

On the playground, meanwhile, the talk among youngsters and parents picking up their children after school was how to come up with a better show-and-tell idea.

Emily Glasheen, whose daughter, Hanna, is in Stefano’s class, quipped: “We’re going to try to commandeer a blimp to top this one.”