In September we told you the Winter Park Boat Parade, a tradition for 10 years, would not take place in 2015 due to the inability to find a sponsor.
"Without sponsor money it's not feasible," Debbie Komanski, Executive Director of the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens told us in September.
The total cost of the event said Komanski was $5,000-7,000, which includes the hard costs of police, staffing, lighting, securing judges and mailings.
The Rotary Club of Winter Park, the beneficiary of the event, usually uses the Albin Polasek Museum as it's headquarters for the event. They canceled it and didn't look for another venue.
However, this morning an individual boat owner let us know that they are taking the idea of the 10 year old tradition into their own hands and doing their own boat parade.
They're calling it the Winter Park FL Grinchmas Boat Parade (Facebook).
The page makes the following statement:
"I propose that us local boat, kayak, and SUP owners organize our own Winter Park Grinchmas Boat Parade with such theme and boycott holiday shopping and dining in Winter Park."
The boat parade will take place December 19th at 6pm. The parade will start in Lake Virginia starting on the South side passing Lake View Dr., Rollins College, Dinky Dock. it will then move under the Fair Banks bridge into Lake Osceola, into the Venetian canal under the Palmer bridge and past Kraft Azalea Park. At that point, the boats will disperse.
We placed a call into the City of Winter Park to see what permits or permissions are required, if any, and await their response.