The annual Mayor’s Cup Regatta and Festival will be held on July 6th in Plattsburgh. This week, organizers announced the winner of the annual t-shirt design competition and outlined events intended to attract visitors to the downtown.
The Mayor’s Cup includes the signature sailing competition regatta on Lake Champlain and a festival at the beach with foot races, music, and sandcastle competitions.
This is the third year that Sunrise Rotary, which organizes Mayor’s Cup events, has partnered with the CV-TEC Digital Production and Multimedia Communications Program for the t-shirt design contest. Instructor Lisa Tallman says it’s an opportunity for students to put their studies into practice.
“This year we were lucky to be joined by three members of the Plattsburgh Sunrise Rotary,” Tallman said. “They spoke about their organization and explained the parts and pieces that go into making this festival and regatta such a large success. Students took that information, did research on past Mayor’s Cup festivals and regattas and got the competition requirements and started brainstorming, making rough sketches. Through these rough sketches we saw many creative and innovative ideas.”
CV-TEC Instructor Melanie Faville says the students then used the skills they were learning in areas such as design, color theory and typography to finalize their designs.
“After they did their rough sketches each student had to bring them to the computer and they had to keep in mind that we were designing for a t-shirt rather than a printed project,” explained Faville. “So the technical aspects were a little bit different than what they were used to. The students learned crucial skills to help put these shirts together.”
The 10 finalists and winner were revealed on Monday. The shirt designed by student Emily Whalen depicting a kite imprinted with Mayor’s Cup events won.
Sunrise Rotary Past President Jeff Prescott outlined plans for the 47th Mayor’s Cup Regatta and Festival.
“It’s centered around the race on Lake Champlain, the sailboats,” said Prescott. “At the city beach this year several events for kids going on. We’re starting with a 5K race, children’s fun run, sandcastle contest. And then we’re going to shift down to the city marina downtown and at the waterfront and bring in a poker run and weave our way through the city. And we’re going to be having a boat parade for non-motorized watercraft, kayaks and canoes and such.”
Three years ago, the Mayor’s Cup Festival moved from Trinity Park in Plattsburgh’s downtown to the City Beach. Rotary past president and Marketing Committee Chair Joanne Dahlen said this year they want to link the beach, marina and downtown areas.
“Plattsburgh is the Lake City and while we loved having the festival at the city beach there’s more to the waterfront than just the beach,” said Dahlen. “So we thought what can we do to integrate more of the bay area into Mayor’s Cup? So it seemed natural to do more things in the afternoon around the city marina and the waterfront there and then also to try to encourage people to come to downtown because downtown is right in between the marina and the beach.”
Mayor Chris Rosenquest welcomes the move to highlight the downtown area.
“When it was approached to move the event to the city beach, I personally was a little hesitant,” recalls Rosenquest. “But it worked out and the last couple years have been fantastic at the beach and it’s one of those opportunities for the city to also highlight that facility as an event space. But it is nice to see some things changing around and again highlighting the revitalized downtown and giving some downtown businesses much needed patronage.”
