Meet the Crew: Paddlefest volunteers

Adventure Crew is incredibly lucky to have so many volunteers who believe in our mission and are willing to give so much of their time to help us advance it.

Among them are our unbelievable Ohio River Paddlefest volunteers. We are incredibly grateful for all of the hard work that nearly 200 of them put into our major community event this year.

From the Leadership Team, which helps us plan and envision an even better event each year, to the on-site volunteers who helped make our Friday night Outdoors for All Expo a huge success, they gave countless hours of their time to support the event and the Crew.

Of course, Paddlefest itself didn't go the way we'd all hoped. With continued storms in the area on Saturday morning, we were forced to cancel. As much as we knew it was the right call, it was heartbreaking to have to turn all those eager paddlers away.

Even then, though, our volunteers were critical, and with their help, things went more smoothly than we could have expected under the circumstances. Those on site at Schmidt helped us get attendees and boats where they needed to be smoothly and safely, and their kind words and positive attitudes helped buoy our spirits.

Meanwhile, the volunteers who'd arrived at Gilday before the sun came up to prep for our Finish Line Festival broke down the site cheerfully and efficiently -- even in a downpour. We're also thankful to the folks who waited patiently at the midpoint stop/Paddleest MINI finish, ready to welcome paddlers if they'd been able to launch.

Simply put, we have the BEST team of volunteers around, and we could never put on Paddlefest without them!