As of June 2000 twelve individuals have contributed to the publication of this site. We would certainly welcome the assistance from other ballooning enthusiasts around the world! See the Ballooning International Contribution Guidelines for further details.

Volunteers who have contributed much of the content on this site include Jane Koenig, Gregory Martin, and John Robinson, long-time friends of Barb Tomln. Gary Tomlin, Barb's husband, has sacrified a significant number of his golfing hours to interviewing and photographing ballooning events featured in this publication. Phillip Tomlin, Barb and Gary's son, is responsible for shooting many of the most popular images appearing on this site.

Marcus Johnstone, a multi-media graphics designer, created the site graphics and much of its overall "look and feel". Barbara Warne contributed several hours to research and content building. Both Marcus and Barbara contributed their time as employees of and at the expense of Westward Connections.

Ballooning International is a "heartstring" publication by Barb Tomlin, online industry pioneer, and lifelong evangelist for New Mexico USA, home to the World's Largest Ballooning Event. Barb, in fact, was the person who launched the first web site for the Balloon Fiesta® in 1995. In addition to her continued work on the Fiesta's site, she has dedicated over 200 hours of her recreational time to building Ballooning International. From designing the infrastructure, producing the the HTML, and developing the content, Barb has been and continues to be the driving force behind this online community project.