2011 Miracle Yearbook

110 CANOE RACE What is there to do with 73 square feet of cardboard and 100 meters of packing tape? Building a canoe and paddling it across Cedar Lake may not be at the top of most lists, but that is the task given to Cedarville's engineering students. It was a clear, crisp afternoon when the student body gathered around the lake to watch the annual Cardboard Canoe Race. This year's race featured 31 engineering teams as well as 5 department canoes. Two at a time, the canoes entered the lake,each carrying twoengineering students as well asa non-engineer passenger. Though the races were timed, many of these amateur shipwrights counted their voyage a success if their canoe managed simply to make it across the lake. Spectators watched as the engineering students carefully paddled their less-than-seaworthy vessels. It was often the passenger's duty to hold the sides of the canoe upright to keep the boat from filling with water. Their efforts were met with varying degrees of success. Some students actually accomplished their goal and made it all the way across the lake in a respectable amount of time. Others discovered the flaws in their design when their boat sank in the middle of Cedar Lake. Rescue teams paddling sturdy wooden canoes assisted in bringing the stranded students back to shore. After the race, the top sixteen teams participated in a demolition derby. All canoes were reduced to soggy strips of cardboard. Well, all except one. The library dominated not only the demolition derby, but the department races as well. The education department used their experience with the laminating machine to laminate their canoe, making it indestructible by the water. This traditional event once again proved an exciting and challenging experience for the students who participated and some afternoon entertainment to those who watched. "I got wet. Really wet. And it smelled so bad! I couldn't wait to take a shower afterwards." (Brittany Santee) Brittney Morris might not have realized she was going for a swim when she volunteered to join Josh Gunderson's canoe. ne Lducation Department's canoe successfully avoids sinking,though the laminated cardboard may have helped. Engineering student‘ paddle their sinking canoe to the water's edge, desperate to make it across Cedar Lake before the paper and cardboard fail.