The Strawbridge Lake Beautification Committee will host the fourth annual Moorestown Paddle Board and Kayak Race on June 11, with proceeds benefiting maintenance for Strawbridge Lake.
Activities will include food trucks and a silent auction. Races begin at 9 a.m. at the corner of Haines Drive and Kings Highway, with two options available, 1 mile or 4 miles. The event will include kayaking, paddle boarding, touring kayak and tandem kayak.
Prizes will be awarded for categories such as distance, gender and age. Anyone interested in racing must register through a link on the committee’s official Facebook page by May 28, and a limited number of free kayaks will be available.
Amy Gravenstine, co-founder of the Strawbridge Lake Beautification Committee, explained how the nonprofit was formed after she, her husband George and their neighbors routinely cleaned the lake.
“It was successful to a point, but we could only get a certain amount done and we weren’t professionals,” she recalled. “My husband had the idea to start a nonprofit to raise funds to have the lake edge professionally cleaned up.”
Maurizio’s Bistro, Moorestown’s Lions Club and microbreweries Dr. Brewlittles and Zed’s Beer will also be on hand. Activities for kids will include art projects hosted by the Perkins Center for the Arts.
Sponsors include PSE&G, Bayada Home Health Care, Manhattan Bagel, Mongo’s Auto Repair, Brandywine Living and The Snyder Group. Potential vendors or sponsors can fill out a form on the committee’s official website under the Race 2022 tab.
This is the first year the race will have professional timing, provided by TNT Timing, and contestants will be required to wear racer bibs that will track their individual times.
“Normally in a race you run over a timing mat,” Gravenstine said. “You have some kind of little chip on your bib and you run over the mat and that records your start time when you leave and your stop time when you’re done. But you couldn’t do that on a lake.”
“What they’re going to do is set up transponders … They would be mounted either on a tree or a pole on either side of the finish line, so that when you pass through, you’ll still have that bib on and it’ll get caught by this wave of energy that’s going across,” she added. “And it will pick up your tracker to catch those times.”
All racers will receive a medal, T-shirt and giveaway bags and winners will receive cash prizes. Volunteers will be available to help participants.
“A lot of kudos goes out to the community for being involved with this, too,” Gravenstine noted. “My husband and I kicked it off and got it started, but without the help of everybody that has come together, it really wouldn’t be what it is today.”
For more information about the race, visit strawbridgelakebc.org or email [email protected].
