Monday, July 30th, 2018
Amphicars reign over lake festival
By Tom Stankard
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Spectators cheer as an Amphicar makes a big slash entering the hot water hole along Lake Shore Drive on Friday evening. Sixty-three of the cars that can travel on both land and water participated in the annual splash in.
CELINA - Three days of nice weather helped make this year's Celina Lake Festival another success, festival co-chair Michelle Miller said this morning.
People across the state and beyond traveled to Celina to be a part of the festival. This was "one of best years we've had. Commitee members can't remember seeing such a large crowd in a long time," Miller said
The festival blasted off on Friday night with the popular fireworks display, but the evening was not without its snags.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources Parks and Watercraft Lt. Travis Martin said two boats collided on Grand Lake near Safety Island shortly before the fireworks had begun. No one was injured nor was alcohol determined to be a factor. Both boats were escorted back to shore under their own power, Martin added. No more information about the incident was available at press time this morning.
Making the biggest splash this weekend were the Amphicars.
This was the year of the Amphicar, Miller said, with the festival's theme of "Amphifun for Everyone." The event celebrated the 50th anniversary of the last of these unique amphibious vehicles to make its way off the assembly line.
To celebrate the anniversary, festival committee members rolled out the red carpet for International Amphicar Owners Club members.
Amphicars served as grand marshals during the parade on Saturday evening, an experience members will never forget, Amphicar club president Jim Golomb said.
"Everybody felt the love coming back from the community to the cars," he said.
Seventy-two Amphicar owners gathered on Saturday at the West Bank boat ramps to take a picture. Golomb said the picture will be sent to the Guinness Book of World Records in the hopes of getting official recognition for most Amphicars in a single location.
Members also gave rides to the public to raise money for CALL Food Pantry.
"It was so much fun giving them rides. We raised $5,000 for the pantry. We really enjoyed it," Golomb said.
Mayor Jeff Hazel said very few incidents were reported, and the festival was very well coordinated. He thanked the commitee for "working hard to put it all together."
"It did very well to bring people together and spoke loudly of the community," he said.
Photo by Ryan Snyder/The Daily Standard
Seventy-two Amphicars line up Saturday at the West Bank boat launch area for a photo that officials hope will set a Guinness world record for the most Amphicars in one location at the same time.
Photo by Tom Stankard/The Daily Standard
Emilie Valdez and Braxton Hirschy, both of Celina, do the chicken dance prior to the start of the Celina Lake Festival parade on Saturday.
