Amphicars set to make a big splash

CELINA - Organizers on Thursday night proclaimed 2018 as the year of the Amphicar at the annual Celina Lake Festival Kickoff Dinner at Celina's American Legion.

Organizers of the Celina Lake Festival - to be held July 27-29 - are gearing up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the last Amphicar to make its way off the assembly line.

To mark the historic occasion, committee members are shining a light on Amphicar club members who visit Celina each year to showcase their vehicles, making a splashy descent into Grand Lake to cheering crowds flanking the hot water hole.

"They're going to be doing rides all weekend for anybody and everybody and everyone that they can," presenter Jonathan Williams enthused to committee members and dignitaries. "We are going to roll out the red carpet for you (Amphicar club members)."

This year's Lake Festival, boasting the theme of "Amphifun for Everyone," will see the Amphicar car club members presiding as grand marshals of the annual parade.

To generate enthusiasm, organizers have their sights set on establishing a Guinness World Record for having the most Amphicars in a single location. Typically between 30 to 40 Amphicars come each year, but committee members this year are shooting for 75 and anticipate vehicles coming from as far away as California.

"That is the plan to get that many Amphicars this year," Williams said.

Amphicar club member Mike Bayman of Urbana told the crowd the Amphicar - the only civilian amphibious passenger automobile ever to be mass-produced - was manufactured in West Germany from 1961-1968.

"We believe there were about 4,500 cars built. We believe there's about maybe 650 to 700 cars left," Bayman told the crowd. "They're getting pretty rare. The prices have almost tripled the last five years."

Special events are the main draw spurring Ohioans to travel, said Donna Grube, Auglaize & Mercer Counties Convention and Visitors Bureau director.

"Is there anything more special than the Amphicars and the 50th anniversary of that final car off the assembly line?" she asked.

An image of the Amphicar swim-in earned the cover of the Greater Grand Lake Visitors Region 2018 Visitors Guide. Furthermore, Tourism Ohio took pictures of last year's Amphicar swim-in that it plans to use for its spring and summer calendar. More than a half a million copies are expected to be published,

"This is great publicity for Celina, for the Lake Festival and, of course, for the Amphicars," she said.

Co-chairwoman Michelle Miller said those looking to catch a ride on an Amphicar at the festival will be asked to make a donation. All proceeds will go to CALL Ministries' food pantry.

Also, the U.S. Freshwater Boaters Alliance will again provide free pontoon boat rides during the weekend.

"This is good tourism too because these people get to see the lake, they get to see what we have to offer out there," U.S. Freshwater Boaters Alliance member Larry Stelzer said. "A lot of these people have never been on the water."

Festival organizers said this year's entertainment will be '50s-'60s band The Decades on Friday night. Saturday night's band has yet to be determined.

The Miss Lake Festival Scholarship Competition, a Miss Ohio Pageant preliminary, returns this year. The Miss Lake Festival Outstanding Teen competition will return as well.

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.

Williams applauded those in the crowd for volunteering countless hours each year to put on the festival.

"Every single person in this room has done their part and they continue to do their part," he said. "I think everyone in this room has a love for our community and that does not exist everywhere. That does not exist everywhere."