MORGANTOWN — The Cheat Lake Regatta floated into its third year Saturday at Crab Shack Carriba alongside Cheat Lake. Attendees could participate in kayak, paddleboat and a “whatever floats” race on the water. President of the Cheat Lake Rotary Lindsay Williams said that rotary has a “four way test” and the Cheat Lake Rotary adds a fifth question to that test — a way to have fun.
“I think that the regatta really promotes how much fun we have at Cheat Lake Rotary,” said Williams.
Williams also said the Cheat Lake Rotary does four major fundraisers a year. She said the regatta helps raise community dollars that can be given back out in scholarships, grants and any charitable request the rotary might receive throughout the year.
“It’s our sponsors and those who come out and join us for the regatta party or join us for the races and that sort of thing that actually make this event fun. It’s the people involved. Rotary members really step up in full force and volunteer,” she said.
She said it’s nice to be able to show the community what the rotary does with the funds they raise. She also mentioned that there were also many district Rotarians in attendance Saturday.
The first year, the rotary wasn’t sure what to expect from the regatta but merited around $14,000 to put back into their charity budget. Last year the figures were closer to $20,000-$21,000. Williams said the Rotary members were hoping to break that record by $10,000 more.
“I think every single year we realize that word of mouth gets out. They have so much fun on this day whether it’s to end the summer or a summer event with the fireworks on the lake to end the day,” she said.
Williams said she was so excited to have the community out to join the Rotary for such a worthy cause.
“Tuesday we’ll change our focus from the regatta to our Dream Benefit and that will be on Sept. 20 at Lakeview Resort. It will be an amazing good time for anyone to come out and support us some more,” she said.
Bron Kayal, owner/operator of Crab Shack Caribba said he felt very special to host such an event for the community.
“This is the third year of us doing it. People seem to be loving it. It’s growing and growing every year so I feel very satisfied, very excited about it,” he said.
Kayal said Cheat Lake is his and the Rotary’s community. This is where they live and where he does business, and he said both he and the Rotary are continuing to put in the efforts for the betterment of Cheat Lake.
“We see a lot of similar faces. A lot of new faces and it’s just a ton of fun. People love it,” he said.
