Goodyear Blimp Helps Fan 'Live for Today'

Goodyear Blimp Helps Fan 'Live for Today'

AKRON, Ohio, May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- A Goodyear blimp and NBC 'Weekend Today' co-host Lester Holt helped a Today show viewer fulfill her lifelong dream as part of the program's 'Live for Today' month-long series.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050204/GTLOGO )

A ride on the Goodyear blimp was voted one of the 50 things to do to make your life complete by NBC's 'Today' viewers for a special series the show is broadcasting throughout May. 'Today' had asked viewers this question and received more than 60,000 emails.

Carole Gergely, the daughter of a 35-year Goodyear associate, was chosen to take the special flight just 1,000 feet in the air over New York City to see the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Central Park, the Empire State building and Rockefeller Plaza.

The Tallmadge, Ohio, resident was accompanied on her trip by Holt, who said, "I enjoyed spending the time in the blimp with you, and while it was your dream, I had a ball too, so thanks for suggesting it."

Before her flight, Gergely told 'Today' that when she sees the blimp fly, "I've been known to stop the car and watch it and cry. I don't know why. It's just a beautiful sight to me."

Holt asked her not to cry during the flight; she promised she wouldn't, but she did shed a few tears of happiness near the end.

"It was everything I thought it would be and then some," she said after her flight. "It's so nice because it's really slow, and you can really see everything and everybody -- very relaxing."

The Ohio-based "Spirit of Goodyear" blimp is heading back to New York this weekend to provide aerial coverage of the three game Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees series for Fox, ESPN and the YES Network.

If you missed NBC's 'Weekend Today' show, you can still see a replay of the video on the show's Web site ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3038633/ ) to see how the Goodyear airship made one woman's dream come true.

The Goodyear blimps have been a familiar sight over American cities since June 3, 1925, and they provided the first aerial coverage of a televised sports event at the 1960 Orange Bowl for CBS.

Goodyear is the world's largest tire company. The company manufactures tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals in more than 80 facilities in 28 countries around the world. Goodyear employs about 80,000 people worldwide.

For more information about Goodyear's airships, go to http://www.goodyearblimp.com/ .

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050204/GTLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

CONTACT: Jennifer Arnold of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company,
+1-330-796-1229

Web site: http://www.goodyearblimp.com/
http://www.goodyear.com/
http://www.goodyearnewsroom.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: High resolution photos to accompany this release can be downloaded from Goodyear's media web site: http://www.goodyearnewsroom.com

-------
Profile: intent