This Year's Boat Show Honors Workers Along for the Ride 20 Years or More
By Amy Polk

By 6:30 a.m. Boat Show morning, Joni Izzard is making coffee and setting out doughnuts for Festival of Arts participants.

"I really like the morning of Boat Show, when the dawn is just starting to break over the show," she said.

She is one of more than 30 volunteers being honored for working 20 years or more at either the Les Cheneaux Antique Wooden Boat Show or Festival of Arts. The honored volunteers will be introduced during this morning's opening ceremonies, at about 10:15 a.m.

"I'm usually gone by the time the show starts," said Mrs. Izzard, who has volunteered on the Festival of Arts Committee for at least 22 years. She started when she was in college, and continues coming back during summer breaks from her job as a teacher at Les Cheneaux Community Schools.

She helps organize the 70 artisans at the show and serves on the committee that selects artists from the many applicants who seek a spot in the festival. With only 70 spaces available, the committee must meet months before the show and select the artists who will get a space. Volunteers also send invitations to artists, stake out spaces for the festival booths the night before, and welcome them to the show the next morning.

A slew of nearly 200 volunteers make the Les Cheneaux Islands Boat Show and Festival of Arts what R.B. Smith calls "the best community show or event I've ever seen anywhere in this country."

Mr. Smith, a Hessel resident who was born and raised here, is among the more than 30 volunteers who have helped with the show 20 years or more. He left the Les Cheneaux Islands to serve in the United States Navy and returned in 1984. He attended his first Boat Show in 1985, and was recruited to work the show the following year. Ever since, he has anticipated the annual show like a kid looks forward to Christmas, and this is Mr. Smith's 21st boat show.

"When it's February and I think about the Boat Show, it's like how I feel about Christmas coming," he said. "If someone asked me what Boat Show was about, I would say it's a lot more than the person who brings their boat to the show."

Mr. Smith works on a committee coordinating parking for vendors, exhibitors, and spectators. He said his only struggle with his work is finding room for everyone to park, and accommodating the requests of people who come to him with questions or needs.

"Why else would keep a person doing it for 21 years if not the interest and love of the show?" Mr. Smith said. "If you look at the people involved in this for years, it's a wonderful way to showcase the community."

Help comes from many segments of the community, even people who have little interest in wooden boats, but enjoy the atmosphere of the show, so they work the show each year and are vital to ensuring smooth operations and a successful boat show.

"There is no small job in the boat show," said Sue Rye, also of Hessel, who has been working with her husband at the show since the first one in 1978. "All the volunteers are so dedicated and work so hard. There is a lot of painstaking preparation that goes into the show to make it go."

Everyone plays an important role, from the boat show committee that starts meeting in winter when memories of the last boat show still linger; to the clean-up crew which spends the days after the show removing every trace of the huge event from the Hessel waterfront. Boat Show day workers often begin at the crack of dawn with the volunteer breakfast or by driving their own boat to the marina because it's an entry in the show. Other entries soon follow, and Hessel Bay becomes a flurry of shining mahogany hulls. Workers are in charge of assisting the many people launching their boats from the boat ramp, directing marine traffic, giving directions, and safely docking the valuable antiques. Entries must be securely tied in an elaborate system of lines and knots to prevent them from knocking together or drifting away.

Mrs. Rye's husband, Glenn, used to enter their antique boat, Callie, named for their daughter, in the show, and he has helped with docking since the first show. Long after he ceased showing a boat, he started helping his wife with registration. She is responsible for sending registration forms to more than 150 previous show participants, registering all boats, and stuffing all the souvenir registration totes that participants receive. She also ensures early registrants get their name in the Boat Show program. It's tedious work, but a job the Ryes feel is necessary to helping the show, and the museums that benefit from it. The area's Les Cheneaux Historical Museum and Les Cheneaux Maritime Museum receive all the proceeds from Boat Show to help pay for operations. Nearly all the museums' operating revenue comes from the annual show.

"We want to see the boat show go on, and we want to see the museums succeed," she said. "This really helps the museums, and I think that's the main reason this show goes as well, with the workers returning year after year."

One could probably estimate how much money volunteers have saved the Boat Show in labor costs and brought to the museum if someone calculated how much it would cost to pay employees to do the same work. But the volunteers would never hear of it.

They come together each year because of their common love of boats, history, and community. Many of those who first came because they were showing a boat started helping because they were there, but remained helpers long after they stopped showing boats.

Barbara Murray of Cedarville is one of those, and came to the show with her husband, the late Reverend George Murray of First Union Church in Cedarville, when they showed their 1929 Scottish sailing dinghy, Mary Ellen, in the first boat show. Mrs. Murray took charge of organizing concessions for 12 years. She plans to work on T-shirt sales this year.

"It's fun," Mrs. Murray said. "It was always just such an exciting day, and I like having a good time with the people I meet, and seeing our summer friends. There's a camaraderie with the people, and it's been a really great time."

She appreciates the fact that the Boat Show Committee has always wanted the Les Cheneaux Islands community to benefit from the crowds the show attracts, and that they always opened concession opportunities to nonprofit groups. Over the years, groups like the Les Cheneaux Lions Club, Les Cheneaux Sportsman's Club, Friends of the Animals, Les Cheneaux Chamber of Commerce, Masons, Les Cheneaux Air Sled Club, churches, and other groups have benefited from selling food at the community's largest event.

Reverend Murray showed his boat for many years, until it was loaned indefinitely to the Maritime Museum as a display.

"He always joked after that his boat was 'moored at the museum,'" Mrs. Murray said. "He just loved the museums and the Boat Show so much."

Like the Murrays, many of the volunteers work as couples, as families, or even recruit their weekend guests to help.

Marshall Bean, a volunteer since 1985, started helping with his youngest daughter after years as a seasonal resident and Boat Show spectator. He also showed and worked on boats, including a 1940, 16-foot Chris Craft utility with a Model A engine that he eventually traded for a Chris Craft Sportsman. Mr. Bean has the Boat Show in his blood, he said, like "varnish and paint under my fingernails. I just love it!"

"I've been around the area for 57 years, and been running boats since I was five," Mr. Bean said. "I help out because it's been a really good time and I enjoy meeting the people who come to the show. It's a nice, fun-filled day, and I love meeting the people and talking to them."

Mr. Bean started coming the first year of the show, when he carried his four-month-old daughter, Melinda, in his arms. Years later, he brought her along to help when he started working as a volunteer. If she couldn't help that year, his oldest daughter, Marsha, would come in her place.

"It's always been a family thing," Mr. Bean said. "I've had a lot of nice experiences there, and I've loved it all."

Mr. Bean said he remembers a few years when a couple of boats almost sank because someone forgot to put in a plug, or didn't season the wood enough to prevent leaks. Mr. Bean says he always "keeps an eye on the water line" for signs of trouble when they launch boats.

Like ants wearing bright shirts to make them easily identifiable to spectators and participants with questions, the volunteers will scurry around the show grounds and docks, all but disappearing into the crowd by late morning. Long term planning and an early start to the busy day enable the volunteers to do most of their work when the public can't see it. Experience has

trained the longtime volunteers to start as early as possible and do their hardest work behind the scenes.

Barb Smith, who co-chaired the show this year with Richie Nye, Kress Goldner, and C.C. Vaught, said it was "about time" to honor these volunteers who have helped the show run as well as it does.

"It's just amazing how this thing works!" she said. "And when you put in over 20 years on an event, that's a really long time." Volunteers To Be Honored at This Year's Show

David Altmaier, Jay Altmaier, Jan Baron, Len Baron, Marshall Bean, Mark Clymer, Phyllis Delooff, Kathy Fountain, Steve Fountain, Shirley Garner, Annegret Goehring, Brent Heerspink, Gerry Izzard, Joni Izzard, John Kovach, Marion Law, Tom Mertaugh, Barbara Murray, Richie Nye, Sadie Nye, Julie Porter, Norine Rudd,, Glenn Rye, Sue Rye, Robbie Simonsen, R.B. Smith, Bob Smith, Sharon Smith, Martha Tassier, Carl TerHaar, Jr. Wilson