2009 Annual Von Nieda Picnic - A Huge Success!

It was the end of the week and the forecast for Saturday was calling for rain …seems Mother Nature was trying to put another hindrance on our annual Non Nieda Picnic. However, Marie, our Picnic Chairperson had Ziggy, and Ziggy has a magical rain thingy that keeps the rain away … well …. it came thru for us! As did Marie Housworth and her Picnic Committee, as the event which had a lot of turbulence a few months back went off without a hitch, without drama, and went on smooth as silk. Last I heard we had around 13 clubs or so present with close to 400 people, if not more attend this year’s event at PYC. With Madre Gras as the theme River Winds YC and Westville YC again showed their involvement for having fun by coming in loud colored masks, head gear, wigs, and outfits. The food fare was the usual Von Nieda Picnic menu – except this year they had 2 charcoal pits for the BBQ chicken which made for some real tasty chicken. The Jersey corn was sweet ( even w/o the honey and butter ) but that just made it that much BETTER! As always the line for clams both raw and steamed never seemed to go away. But the FSA crew made sure that the corn, clams, and chicken was readily available and cooked to perfection. VP John Maloney provided music for the masses until DJ Jerry arrived in the evening. John even added a twist w/ Karaoke or as he called it scary-okie – which turned out to be anything but scary. I have to say that we have some great singers within the league and the first set of pipes that caught everyone’s attention was WPBA Trustee Curtis Nueffer when he belted out The National Anthem. That opened the door to others who came up and showed that not only does America Has Talent – but so does the DRYL !!! Also, for our entertainment, we had the Andalusia Jug Band play for us which had many foot stomping and clapping to some hill-billie music.

As always the club competitions were a big hit as everyone got involved with cheering their clubs on to victory. However one club dominated this year’s events – Horseshoes Champions are BOC, Volleyball Champions are BOC, Men’s Tug A War Champions are BOC, Women’s Tug A War Champions are BOC , Quoits Champions are BOC – oh wait they didn’t win Quoits – YAC did ! BOC came out with a big crowd and predicted wins but I do not think they expected to walk away with almost all the events. Congrats has to go out to them for their feat

Our lovely Queen Carla was in attendance as were many Princesses who showed up to support their clubs and the league – and they also helped out in the kid games and anything else they were asked to do. As for the games, Marie had the kids games down as ALL the kids left with prizes, and ALL the kids seemed to have great afternoon. Marie came up with the idea about giving away a couple bikes this year so 2 kids left with a couple of cool looking bikes.

Another familiar face to the league who was there was Doc Harry who has been the Tee-Shirt / Sweatshirt guy who is always trying to sell our goods – well he and his lovely wife Bonnie made their rounds during the picnic and I think they sold all the shirts they had – Kudos to them on their efforts not only for their selling abilities on Saturday but for their efforts the last couple years in dragging these items to each meeting / event and pushing sales for us.

An unfamiliar face to DRYL members but from what I hear is a very familiar face to PYC members was that of Meg Quinn – she had the kitchen organized and had the food moving out to the masses making sure all went smooth and that the food supply was constantly monitored keeping the food supply never ending. She worked hard for us, was very efficient, and truly was a key to the success of for the event who worked in the background. Another hard worker for the event who was in the background was Mike Callahan from PYC who every time I passed him, asked if I / we needed anything …... PYC is pretty lucky to have members like these guys helping out.

All in all it was a very successful day and many many people came up to me and said how nice the day was and that they enjoyed the event.

I think it is safe to say that we all got into this hobby called boating to enjoy our time away from work and the everyday hassles associated with a hectic life. We joined clubs to again have fun, and spend time in the company of others who have the same interests as us – boating and having fun. Let’s remember that all the work done in our organization, and your club is done by volunteers, and we should feel very fortunate to have people who are willing to take time out of the life for us. I like to thank all my Officers, Committee Heads, Committee people, the behind the scenes volunteers who helped out and everyone who came out to SUPPORT THE LEAGUE and the picnic !!