By G. KERRY WEBSTER
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STATE COLLEGE — And the winner is … Team OLV.
The Our Lady of Victory Catholic School team of Kyle Fritzsche and Alex Seisler were declared winners of the 11 and older 2-person boat division of the Cardboard Regatta. The event is held annually at Welch Pool in State College and is sponsored by Centre Region Parks and Recreation.
The rules are simple; build your own boat from just cardboard, paperboard and duct tape; keep its measurements to a maximum of 7-feet long and 4-feet wide; and use propulsion power made from boat-building materials — or hands and feet — to score the best time in a course to be one length of the pool, or 25 yards.
During the last few days of school in the spring, Meg Relkin’s middle-school social studies class at OLV was tasked to design and create a boat to enter into the competition.
“We were concluding our unit on water and the class was excited to participate in the Regatta,” said the sixth-grade OLV teacher. “As it turned out, we only had four class periods to design and build our boat.”
The students went to work immediately, taking one entire class period to research and decide on the design and construction. Relkin knew she had to hustle too.
“While shopping for the duct tape at (the store), I asked if they had any large boxes,” she said.
Well, the store in fact did have large boxes. Relkin said she realized they mistakenly brought the wrong car for the shopping trip while struggling with her husband to load the monstrosity into the vehicle.
The students next measured and chalked the boat’s pattern and started taping, all very precisely Relkin added.
“There was a lot of measuring twice and adjusting,” she said. “Each group of three measured and cut, then carefully laid down the tape.”
The boat was complete, but so was the 2020-21 academic year. The final bell of sixth grade had sounded for the students; however, the project was still missing an important element — the paddle.
That’s when Alex and Kyle stepped up and offered to build the final piece to the puzzle during their summer vacation.
On race day, the team showed up, and with classmates Hana and Maria on hand to cheer them on, paddled their way to victory.
“It was a close race,” said Relkin. “We all enjoyed seeing the other boats and maybe next year we will think of a theme too.”
Several other categories were included in the event and the winners are as follows:
* Jocelyn Wellman — Best overall costume to the team that raced in the boat;
* Nadir Biyik — Best overall boat design, Ninja Boat;
* Evelyn Wollfrey — Single boat ages 6-10 winner;
* Benjamin Herickhoff — 2-person boat age 6-10 winner;
* Bryan Jensen — Single boat ages 11-plus winner; and
* Ellen Woodruff — Titanic Award for the most spectacular sinking to the boat registered.
