Reusable Regattas to set sail Saturday

This Saturday, students will race across Lake Raleigh on Centennial Campus, paddling boats made of junk in the second annual Reusable Regatta.

Chris Morrow, one of the event organizers and a sophomore in mechanical engineering, said the event is a joint effort between Park Scholars and the N.C. State Office of Sustainability.

"We want the Reusable Regatta to be a fun way for students to get involved and learn about sustainability on campus," Morrow said.

It costs Reusable Regatta teams $10 to register. The event necessitates thrift in materials and creativity in construction. Team members must find and gather any recyclable materials they can find and put their heads together to design a raft that can float and support the weight of two people. Paddles must also be created out of recyclable materials.

During last year's Reusable Regatta, one team created a raft made of two large wooden boards taped together with mesh bags of empty plastic bottles tied underneath them. Another consisted of trash bags filled with empty bottles put inside a plastic crate, all flipped upside-down and haphazardly taped together.

All the rafts floated, but none were stable enough to allow anyone to do anything other than lie down on them.

"One team made paddles out of PVC pipes with ping-pong paddles taped to the ends," said Vincent Feucht, a senior in English and the event's senior mentor for organizing the event.

Other designs for "paddles" included trash can lids and food serving trays.

According to the event schedule on the Reusable Regatta website, at 10 a.m. Saturday morning participants should arrive at Lake Raleigh to begin assembling their rafts out of their found materials. Teams may also create their rafts ahead of time if they have the means to transport them there, and may bring them as late as 12 p.m., when official sign-ins begin.

Awards will be presented to the first place team as well as the team with the most creative raft.

"We hope to show that N.C. State is a campus that cares about sustainability in a way that is fun and hands-on," Fuecht said. "Sustainability is important, especially now."

Feucht said the event will also feature booths with information on recycling and how students can build a better campus.

"Something we were aiming for is for this to become like the Krispy Kreme run," said Sarah Guess, a freshman in Biomedical Engineering and one of the Reusable Regatta's planners, "something that is both as big and has as noble of a cause."