Deitsch to lead Lake Festival parade

CELINA - Celina Lake Festival organizers on Thursday night bestowed to Jerry Deitsch the one role he hasn't yet had the pleasure to carry out - grand marshal of the annual parade.

"Come to find out, he had been on our commitee for a long, long, long time and he had never been our grand marshal before," committee member Jonathan Williams said at Thursday night's annual Celina Lake Festival Kickoff Dinner at Celina's American Legion hall.

Deitsch recently stepped down as the Lake Festival committee's longest-serving member. Since 1977, Deitsch had been the man behind the camera, responsible for capturing indelible images of people and activities at the Lake Festival.

He also had been the director of the Lake Festival Scholarship Pageant, treasurer, committee member and, perhaps most importantly of all, a friend to many.

"Well I have no jobs now," Deitsch said. "This is a very nice honor you've given me, and I thank you very much."

The selection of Deitsch as grand marshal, Williams noted, fits in well with this year's Lake Festival theme: "A Part of Who We Are." The festival is set for July 26-28.

"As we plan for floats and all of those things, it'll kind of tie back into the Lake Festival is a part of who we are, no matter why you come to Lake Festival or what you do," Williams said.

Williams and co-chairwoman Michelle Miller also revealed that a fleet of Amphicars will be back in a big way this year to mark the club's 20th year at Lake Festival.

Amphicar club members at last year's Lake Festival captured the limelight as they celebrated the 50th anniversary of the last Amphicar to make its way off the assembly line. They had been named grand marshals and gave an estimated 750 rides. Riders were asked to make donations, with all proceeds going to CALL Ministries' food pantry.

"We're trying to match the numbers of last year, and it's going to be tough because we pulled a lot of people from California and Florida, even had a guy fly in from Europe," Amphicar club member Mike Bayman of Urbana told the crowd, adding his colleagues had an unbelievable time last year.

Members will likely give rides again this year but not to the same extent as last year, he said.

Bayman also revealed that his club had come up two Amphicars shy of establishing a Guinness World Record for having the most Amphicars in a single location.

"Their requirements of breaking the record were any amphibious vehicles," he said, noting a place in Germany snagged record. "But they didn't have to be cars. They could be amphibious vehicles. There were tanks. There were boats. There were everything."

The two Amphicars that would have put the club over the finish line in Celina last year happened to be broken down and sitting in motel parking lots, he added.

"We missed it, but we'll work on it agin," he said.

Festival organizers said this year's entertainment will be '50s-'60s band The Decades on Friday night. Saturday night's band will be Rockhouse, a Columbus-based '80s hair metal act.

Also, the Lake Festival will welcome a different ride provider this year, Big O Amusements, Miller said. The company is expected to bring 12 to 15 rides.

"Our past ride company has retired so we have signed a contract with Big O Amusements. They have a nice setup. They do the Auglaize County Fair," Miller pointed out.

The Miss Lake Festival Scholarship Competition, a Miss Ohio Pageant preliminary, returns this year.

Other returning events this year include a fireworks show, the car show, cruise-in, Amphicar swim-in, craft show, children's fishing derby and lift-a-thon. Craft vendors also will again set up shop in Lakeshore Park.

"For me, what I've seen over the years is Lake Festival is probably the most single cohesive group that pulls off this type of event and I really like what happens here," Celina Mayor Jeff Hazel told commitee members.