By By TOM MAJEREK / Special to Daily Star
NILES - The 11th annual "Anything That Floats" contest was a huge success. This year we had 38 entries, although it was not the biggest, it was the best in terms of the types of rafts entered. It seemed more time had been put into the rafts than in the past
The "Anything That Floats" contest is the 21st century version of the Niles Raft Race. That was big in the 70s and it died, now it's back as the "Anything That Floats" contest.
The weather was beautiful and sunny, a great day for rafting.
There where many winners at this year's event. The theme was "Books" and many great book-themed rafts floated down the river. Even a check book, the phone book and just a page from a book - "THE END."
Here is a list of the winners:
Best Overall Raft- The Parrott Heads In Michiana organization did the books of author Jimmy Buffett and created a tropical paradise.
Best Book Theme – The Modineer crew floated down an awesome Harry Potter raft.
Most Creative – IBEW, "the best trained electricians in the area" won most creative for the second year in a row with "Cat In The Hat."
Best Built – The Howard Youth Baseball League did a baseball scorebook.
Most Colorful – The Noon Optimist Club of Niles did the coloring book with giant crayons and John Willis as the Crayola Bunny.
Prettiest – The Dizzy Dames Red Hat Society.
Rowdy Rafters – Krueger Septic were crazy in their "Field Of Dreams." This is the sixth year in a row they won the "rowdy rafters"
Funniest Raft – Jeannie Gilbert and friends from the Four Flags Antique Mall did the "Three Little Pigs."
Slowest – The Silverbrook Manor Mermaids.
Least Likely to Float – Majerek's Hallmark and Readers World almost sank in their "Skippy Jon Jones" raft.
Raft Only a Mother Could Love. – Some young rafters represented Dee's Auto Body as "Super Heroes"
Best Costumes – Tans Down Under won this award hands down with their pirate costumes on their "Treasure Island" raft.
Most Original – This is a new award for the contest and it went to Coldwell Banker and "The Wizard of Oz."
Best Boat Theme – we added this award because OF a misprint on our registration flier that read "boats" instead of "books." The award went to Pancho Velez and friends and their boat "The Black Pearl"
The St. Joseph River Award is presented to the raft that the judges didn't give an award to but our committee thought they deserved one. This year's winner was Joey Armadillo's and their giant armadillo.
The Four Flags Award goes to the Rafting Group that helped our event the most. This year we gave it to The Four Flags Apple Festival Organization who help out the Niles Riverfest in so many ways.
The awards this year were great with a picture of the raft on the award along with the Anything That Floats logo 2005 and the Riverfest 2005 logo. Members of the Foxy Ladies Red Hat Society did the judging this year.
The whole Majerek's company and family helped put the event on as well as contributions from A &J Rentals, The IBEW Electrical Workers Union, Williams Do It Best Home Center, Kinko's Copy Center, E-Corp Printing, WNIL, Leader Publications, The Niles High School Cheerleaders, Michiana Delivery Service, Midstates Bolt and Screw Company, Berrien County Civitan, and the City of Niles. Special thanks to Kevin Schlutt, Wayne Simpson, Buzzy Garlanger and the crew that helped all the rafts in and out of the water. The Niles River Rescue Unit did a fine job and made the event safe for everyone. This event would not have happened without their help.
Niles should be proud of this event. Every town has a parade but only Niles has an "Anything That Floats" contest.
The rafts voted on next year's theme at this year's event. Next year's theme is going to be "Mardi Gras on the St. Joe River." It should be a wacky raft race. Next year's event will be on Aug. 5.
Anyone interested in getting involved in next year's event, Anything That Floats Raft Race 2006, should call Tom Majerek at 683-6912.