Have a Roaring Good Time at the Great Gatsby Regatta and Help Saline Crew

The third annual Great Gatsby Regatta, a fundraising gala to be held this month, will benefit Saline Crew, the men’s and women’s rowing teams at Saline High School.

The festivities take place from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23, on the grounds of the historic Hoyt-Ford Building at 600 W. Michigan Ave. The site of the events is across the road from Wellers, about a half-mile west of downtown Saline, on the banks of the Saline River, near the dam.

The Great Gatsby Regatta, as in previous years, will have a “Roaring Twenties” theme. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to wear flapper outfits, straw hats and bow ties, or other period attire. Prizes will be awarded for best costume, male and female.

Attendees will enjoy a surf and turf dinner catered by . They can also select from red and white wines from . 

Attendees can partake of a whiskey and cigar bar, dance to vintage jazz and swing tunes played by the Saline Big Band, and try their luck in the no-stakes Blackjack Challenge. Celebrity look-alikes will roam the party. Antique cars will be on display.  

The Saline Crew team’s co-head coaches, Mary Ann MacLaren and Katie Lauder, will be on hand, along with the team’s founding coaches, Bridgette Sparks and David Fiske. They will explain rowing equipment on display, describe the team’s training and racing activities, and attest to the program’s value and importance to team members. Fiske will serve as master of ceremonies for the event’s presentations.

The cost is $55 per person, or $100 per couple. Groups can reserve a table for eight for $380. Attendees can bid on fun and valuable items, donated by area businesses and individuals, in a silent auction.  Portions of all proceeds will help build a community boathouse, for shared use by Saline Crew and the Eastern Michigan University rowing teams, on Ford Lake in Ypsilanti, near Lakeside Park, where the teams practice.

Approximately 150 people attended each of the first two Great Gatsby Regatta fundraising events in August 2009 and 2010. As many or more expected this year.

Saline Crew is a club sport that depends for support upon volunteering and fundraising, especially by team members’ parents, and donations from community members. 

Fifty or more students are expected to compete in the fall training season’s longer, more endurance-oriented events. Forty or more students will then participate in the spring racing season, which emphasizes shorter, more sprint-like races.

Saline Crew’s girls and boys teams have earned medals at several Midwest regional regattas. The team’s lightweight boys 4+ boat finished fifth nationally at the American Schoolboy Championship in Tennessee in Spring 2008. In the spring 2010 state finals, the team’s lightweight boys 8+ boat took first place, earning a trip to the nationals in Saratoga, New York, where it came in 12th. 

Saline Crew’s girls team has won the state championship in the Women’s Pair and Women’s Novice 4 competitions.

More information can be found at www.salinecrew.org.