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2010 Indian Rocks Holiday Street Parade

Sunday, December 8th, 2010

BOAT CLUB MEMBERS KAREN & GEORGE LAUFENBURGER donated the use of their boat and captained it, once again representing our club in the annual Indian Rocks Holiday Street Parade.

The IRB Boat Club provided volunteers and boats to help patrol the perimeter of the race course at the 2010 Clearwater Super Boat Races. Jerry & Linda Newton's Blue Waters (pictured below) was selected to be the course guide at Turn 2 at the north end of the race. A great day of excitement on the water!

About 15 boats filled with Boat Club members gathered to bid farewell to another summer of fabulous boating. We converged on the northernmost island in IRB, just south of the Belleair Causeway, about 4 p.m. In our last hurrah to summer, we enjoyed one another's company and delicious grillout...taking consolation in the fact that next summer will even be bettter!

We didn't just party on the island at the End-of-Summer Party...WE ADOPTED IT!! In conjunction with Tampa Bay Watch, a non-profit stewardship program to protect and restore Tampa Bay's marine and wetland environments, our Boat Club will now be responsible for keeping IRB's northernmost island clean. Pictured below is Boat Club President Bob Griffin staking claim. A special thanks to the City of IRB for donating the sign pole.

In preparation for potential effects of the Gulf Oil Spill, our Boat Club participated in a Special Intracoastal Clean-up, sponsored by Keep Pinellas Beautiful. We were responsible for the area from the Belleair Causeway (where we met at 8 a.m.), south to The Pub in Indian Shores, which sponsored a Post Clean-up Party with food and drinks for all the volunteers. Bill Sanders, Keep Pinellas Beautiful's director was also in charge of signing up Pinellas volunteers to clean up oil from the beaches, should the need arise, and our Boat Club stepped up. (Fortunately, our services for this activity were not needed!)

Our Boat Club had about 20 boats attend this event and we "took over" the Salt Rock's entire back patio! The restaurant opened an hour early for us and fed us FREE appetizers! Mmmm. Just one of the many "benes" of being an IRB Boat Club member!

This was our Boat Club's second trip here and 60 people (some boaters, some ride-a-longs and some road warriors) enjoyed beautiful weather and a brunch that is second to none! This event will definitely be a repeat next year so don't miss it!

The Island Way had plenty of dock space to accommodate all of us and sat about 65 of us all together (privately!) on their southwest patio. Brunch was great...Island Way-style, which goes without saying!

More than 50 showed up to enjoy our Boat Club's afternoon Island Party on Caladesi Island. This informal party started at noon and lasted until whenever everyone left. The location was beautiful, the weather was perfect and we all agreed we should plan to repeat this event year after year after year...

By the end of the morning, a dozen Boat Club member volunteers filled a dumpster and found some "interesting junk" as a bonus!

Our Boat Club helped to make this the best Boat Parade IRB has ever seen!!!

Our Club's boat WON... 1st Place:      Indian Rocks Beach Lighted Boat Parade 1st Place:      Indian Shores-Redington Lighted Boat Parade 2nd Place:      Clearwater-Island Estates Lighted Boat Parade Pictured to the right are our hosts John and Joannie Pickens as we kicked off the first parade.

Below are various groups that participated in the parades.

Special thanks to Karen & George Laufenburger for donating their boat and driving in the parade!

John Pickens was gracious enough to volunteer his boat for the day and our Boat Club members decorated it on Thursday and Friday. Riding on the boat were Staff Sergeant Mikey Gibbons, part of the special Air Force 820th Security Forces Group, stationed at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, and six of his military friends (some active/some inactive) with their significant others. Staff Sergeant Gibbons has been deployed for four tours of duty in Iraq over the past four years. His official residence is Indian Rocks Beach and we are all very proud of the sacrifice he has made for his country. And, the boat won third place in its category...not too shabby.

Members of the IRB set sail from the 15th Avenue Boat Ramp and cleaned up all the islands near the city limits. Bill Sanders from Keep Pinellas Beautiful, that sponsors a county-wide pick-up program, supplied the group with trash bags, trash sticks, water and shirts.

Pictured above in left photo (left to right): The Baker Family, Savanah Bush, Jerry and Linda Newton, the Thayer family, Rich Antepenko, Wanda Partyka, Kitty Hanwerk and Boat Club President Bob Griffin. (Not shown: Bonner Keiko). Right Photo: The Baker Boat...Rod and Tracy donated the use of their boat. Pictured on their boat is Savanah Bush and Jerry and Linda Newton.

Our Island cookout and sunset celebration was a huge success! We had about 25 boats joining us with close to 100 people attending! The food was great and the weather was even better! An absolutely perfect evening-the kind boater's dream of! We will definitely do this again!

Even with extreme low tides and inclement weather, our Boat Club's very first event drew about 30 boaters and/or ride-a-longs who joined us for dinner at the Pub! A great first start to many more successful events!