The Thirty-seventh Annual Great Cardboard Regatta Needs a Champion

What began as a small, experimental creative-design project at Southern Illinois University is sadly coming to an end.

In 1974 (thirty-six years ago), Richard Archer challenged his students to build a boat made from only corrugated cardboard, race it around a watery course, and do it while being creative, having fun, looking good, and not sinking. A lot of them sank.

That was the beginning of the original Great Cardboard Boat Regatta. There was nothing else like it being done anywhere in the world. That race inspired over two-thousand other schools and organizations to copy it. Thousands and thousands of cardboard boats have been built and raced to the enjoyment of thousands and thousands of spectators in this country and many foreign ones. Participants have come from all over the globe to race in Carbondale, Illinois. A variety of these events can be seen by going to Google-- type in "cardboard boats" and view the wide array of creative boats that have been built and raced over the years since. All of these regattas are copies of the original Great Cardboard Boat Regatta held here at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

After thirty-six years of hard work, dedication, incredible fun, dynamically constructed and creative cardboard boats, and with much sadness and regret, the two people who kept the Regatta alive, Larry Busch and Larry "Skip" Briggs, are resigning. Both are now retired from the university and have found other life challenges that require them to step back from the day-to-day task of putting the Regatta together and making it work. They are looking for someone who loves the event as much as they do to take over the reins.

May 1, 2010 is the scheduled date for the thirty-seventh Great Cardboard Boat Regatta, and the clock is ticking.

If you or your organization believe the Regatta is an event you could do, the two Larrys would be more than happy to sit down and discuss the structure and needs, from beginning to end. It is too great of an event to just let die, and none of us want to see it disappear from the Carbondale scene. If you're interested and want to take on the challenge, please email Larry Busch at <BuschWL@aol.com>, or Larry "Skip" Briggs at <BBriggs@siu.edu>. The Great Cardboard Boat Regatta should live on. It needs a champion to step up now.

Larry Busch and Larry "Skip" Briggs