The Cardboard Boat Race returned to Fox Lake on Saturday along the newly redone Lakefront Park on Nippersink Lake.
There were 14 cardboard boat entries this year. The race began at noon after the cardboard race parade along the sidewalk to the launch site as a disc jockey played the song, “Baby Elephant Walk” made famous by Henry Mancini & his Orchestra.
“Because we are in Lake County, back in the good old days when there were lots more civic organizations, there were cardboard boat races all over the place, and Fox Lake has maintained the legacy and hopefully will continue,” said Jeff Fraas, boat inspector and official race timer for the Cardboard Race Committee.
The boats were timed to travel 25 meters in thigh-high water. A youth fishing derby was also held at the same location earlier in the day.
Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit estimated the Cardboard Boat Race has taken place over several decades.
“It’s just one of our summer traditions that makes us a community,” he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary 41-04 Flotilla Fox Lake had a tent with volunteers for the occasion.
Don Dumas, the auxiliary’s public affairs officer, said, “Our role here is for public education for safe boating, and we try to spread the word.”
The event, he said, presented a way, “to engage with the youth, engage with the community … let people know who we are and what we do.”
A nominal registration fee offered the thrill of a gleaming trophy. Contestants could add on a boat-building kit, which included a roll of duct tape, a box cutter, and a four-by-eight-foot piece of cardboard.
Anthony Dunskis, 7, a second-grader from Ingleside, and his father Dan brought orange and yellow spray paint, too.
“It’s just a great experience building a boat,” Dan Dunskis said.
Racing to a first-place win with a time of 35.5 was the Fox Lake Royalty boat called “The Royalty.” Rayna Ludden, 11, a sixth-grader from Fox Lake, Junior Miss Fox Lake Area, and Kira Kozan, 10, a fourth-grader from Fox Lake, Little Miss Fox Lake Area, were the two paddlers.
Carrie Swift, Kira’s mother, was impressed with the boat’s structure built with royalty teamwork and said she was “super proud.”
Building a cardboard boat requires the STEAM educational principles of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
Kira is, “actually homeschooled and she’s in an engineering course,” her mother said. “She’s all about (science).”
Allison Atteberry of Lakemoor, the mother of Silas Krajkovic, 8, a third-grader, and Teddy Krajkovic, 6, a first-grader, also agreed that boat building teaches children about science. Their boat was called “The Mighty Bear.”
“This is the future,” Atteberry said of STEAM.
