In 1974 a senior design project at SIU Carbondale turned into an annual event now known as the Great Cardboard Boat Regatta at campus lake.
April 22 is Earth Day and the same day as the 38th Cardboard boat Regatta.
Boat designs are put into 4 classes: powered by paddles, mechanical powered, kids and instant boats made that morning with a kit.
Alpha Chi Sigma Fraternity organizes the event their advisor, Mary Kinzel says when she got involved with regatta in 2010 and there were less than two dozen participants, but by 2019 they had almost 40 boats participating.
“COVID happened. We did not have the regatta in 2020 and 2021, 2022, we're back. We had 20 boats again and so we're kind of doing that rebuilding phase again, so I'm I am optimistic that we may have maybe 25 or 30 votes this year.”
Registration starts at 10 am and the first race starts at 1.
