What a fabulous day we had! Our first annual Otter Lake Canada Day Boat Parade was awesome with15 incredibly decorated boats participating. A fun and festive time was had by all; from the crews on the boat entries to those watching from both water and dock.
Thank you to Jeff and Deb Smith, owners of the Otter Lake Marina for generously donating 2 adult sweatshirts as prizes, as well providing a space for our judging panel on the marina docks.
A big shout out to Dianne and Dave Amy for handling the registration on their pontoon boat before the parade. Another big acknowledgement to our judges, Peter Koppisch, Gerry Doyle and Denise Exler. Our lead boat was captained by Brad Chittick, the end of the parade line was held by John Roberts, and John Exler was on point.
The judges had a very tough time choosing the winners as there were so many incredible entries. It was so amazing to see the amount of effort and imagination that went into decorating your boats. But here are the winners:
Most Creative – Boat #7 – Mike Leblanc, Winner of an Adult Sweatshirt – courtesy of Otter Lake Marina
Most Otter Lake Spirit – Boat #5 – Steve Houston, Winner of an Adult Sweatshirt – courtesy of Otter Lake Marina
Most Patriotic– Boat #8 – Morris Eddy, Winner of an Adult Sweatshirt from Otter Lake Marina – courtesy of OLRA
Best Overall – Boat #3 – Al Hanks, Winner of a $100 an Otter Lake gift certificate – courtesy of OLRA and Recipient of Otter Lake Boat Parade Trophy
Thank you to our photographers, James and Gerry. If you would like a picture of your boat in the parade, please let Denise know and include the entry number in your email to otterlakepix@gmail.com. Check out your Boat Parade Winners Photo Gallery on olra.ca and photos on our facebook page for OLRA Otter Lake.
Our beautiful historic trophy awarded to Best Overall was originally used as the trophy in the Otter Lake Boat Regatta in the 1990’s. How cool is that! Many thanks to Bev Milligan and Roland Weinman for donating.
We welcome any constructive feedback on how we can improve the parade for next year.
Many thanks for being part of our wonderful day. We look forward to having a bigger event next year!
OLRA Boat Parade Committee
John Roberts, Brad Chittick, and Denise Exler