It was announced today that the 2015 Winter Park Boat Parade, a ten-year-long tradition, scheduled for Saturday, December 12, 2015, was canceled by The Rotary Club of Winter Park and the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens.
It's not been decided if it will return in 2016 and The Rotary Club of Winter Park is not looking for another venue for this year.
Debbie Komanski, Executive Director of the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens, spoke with us about the decision.
"It's very sad. It was a hard decision" Komanski says.
A fundraiser for rotary, the nautical holiday event is very dependent on sponsor money. The full cost to put on the event is $5,000-$7,000. All the boats enter for free and attending the parade is free, so sponsor money is important.
This year, they haven't been able to get the sponsor dollars for the hard costs of police, staffing, lighting, securing judges and mailings.
"Without sponsor money it's not feasible," Komanski told us.
The proceeds were so minimal this year that it didn't make sense to the museum and to The Roatary Club to continue for so little outcome.
Typically the boat parade has 25-28 boats, but it takes tremendous effort to get boat owners to agree to be a part of it.
"It's like pulling teeth," says Komansi.
People would rather watch it than be in it. The museum mails and calls everyone with a boat registration on the Chain of Lakes. That takes a lot of time and cost which the museum was bearing.
Also, The Rotary Club of Winter Park does another signature fundraiser, Chili for Charity, which has a bigger return and takes less man hours than the boat parade. They will place their focus fully on that in February 2016.