Saturday, June 27, 2009
Video
By Denise Dick
About 2,000 plastic bottles made up a Boardman man’s entry.
SHARON, Pa. — Two giant frogs, a water lily made from plastic bottles and a G.I. Joe helicopter were among the vessels that took to the Shenango River in the 29th annual Small Ships Revue.
People lined the streets and bridges downtown Friday evening for the Quaker Steak & Lube event to first watch the parade and then see the ships hit the water. The revue was sponsored by Miller and radio station Y-103.
Some spectators lobbed water balloons at the sailors or sprayed water from the bridges above.
Contestants jumped from their crafts to hurl the balloons back into the crowd.
John Butler of Boardman collected about 2,000 empty water bottles and formed them into the petals of a water lily.
“This is our 16th year,” Butler said. “We’ve won four times.”
His entry last year was a croco-whal-igator, a cross of a crocodile, a whale and an alligator. Other years’ entries included Santa Claus, Crayons and a picnic.
“Everyone yells out suggestions, and Danielle Storey said, ‘Why not go a little more green this year?’” Butler said.
Storey is one of the 20 to 25 relatives and friends who gathered around Butler on Friday before the parade, helping get ready for the big showing.
“I’m one of nine kids, so they’ll be a lot of people all around,” he said. “We’ll probably have about 50 people cheering.”
Work on this year’s ship started in December when he enlisted the help of those supporters to collect plastic bottles.
He devoted many hours to this year’s ship.
The base is of recycled cardboard, and pulleys open and close the flower’s petals.
Friday marked Dan Hayne of Greenville’s seventh year in the revue.
“It’s a replica of a G.I. Joe helicopter called the Dragonfly,” Hayne said. “It’s a toy we all played with as little kids, and now the movie’s coming out.”
He and a group of friends from Commodore Perry High School worked on the entry for about three weeks. Two of the friends are engineers, and the group did the work in Hayne’s father’s shop, Hayne Welding, Greenville, where they could use cranes to assemble their creation.
It tipped the scales at 1,400 pounds.
“It’s just fun getting together,” Hayne said.
The propeller of the fiberglass chopper even moves.
Ed Schuller of Hermitage returned this year, his second in the event, with his frog made from plastic barrels. This year, though, he added a second, smaller frog to his entry.
He owns Frogtown Driving Range on Frogtown Road, Hermitage.