By KELLI FONTENOT
Published Sept. 4, 2008 by The Current Sauce
The River Campus Ministry, a collegiate group associated with The River interdenominational church, scheduled its second annual Riverboat Outreach - a social session for students, complete with free food and riverboat rides - for last Saturday. This year, the event hit an unexpected snag.
"We did it last year, and it was a real big success. Students took [boats] all up and down the Cane River and they had a lot of fun with it, so we decided to do it again this year," minister Ellis Newman said. "But we didn't get to."
It wasn't a matter of fish and loaves - several businesses donated food and supplies for the event, and three community members lent their barges. When the organizers showed up to push their first vessel out on the water, the boat launches were closed.
Newman, who contacted the game warden, said he expected that the Cane River would be accessible because it collected so much rain during the week. Unfortunately, the water level was almost a foot too shallow.
"If the water's too low, then the boats can get hung up on objects in the water, and so the game warden just says, 'No boats on the river,'" he said.
The Cane River Patrol strongly discouraged water sports and activities while the levels remained low, Cane River Patrol officer Betty Fuller said.
It takes at least 15 feet of water to launch a boat, and with the conditions at the outreach, it would have taken eight inches of rain all at once for Cane River to return to its normal, safe level, Fuller said.
"If you have a boat you love, I just wouldn't recommend taking it out in these conditions," Fuller said.
Because the boats were borrowed, Newman and other organizers decided to host the event on the riverbank. At the outreach, students played games down by the riverside as an active alternative to a relaxing boat ride. They played basketball, horseshoes and volleyball at the outreach. They also lined up for free barbecue.
Brian Pierson, The River's youth director, showed up at the event to help pilot one of the boats, but ended up manning the grill instead. Even without the presence of riverboats, Pierson said the Riverboat Outreach was a success.
Newman said he hoped The River would be able to take students out on the boats later during the semester, provided enough rainfall makes conditions favorable. After Gustav, rain seems all too obvious.
Ironically, Fuller said the Cane River can also be closed for water levels that are too high.
