A parade and blessing of boats, a Captain’s Dinner, a dock side nautical themed flea market, a town wide garage sale, topped off by fireworks, could all be part of a new annual tradition being planned to kick off the unofficial start of summer on Memorial Day.

The event is being billed as “Schroon Lake’s Opening Weekend” and is being sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.

“We have our July 4^th Parade and fireworks, our Labor Day celebration and fireworks, and we were looking at doing something to start the season,” Shelby Davis, restaurateur and one of the organizers, told Schroon Laker today.

Shelby said the idea for a blessing of the boats and parade was the idea of Sharon Piper, co-owner of the Schroon Lake Bed and Breakfast. “Full credit goes to Sharon. It’s a wonderful idea. We are now looking at ways to expand on it to make it a whole weekend event”.

The highlight of the weekend would be a Saturday parade of watercraft and blessing of the boats.

“This weekend is traditionally the first weekend, boat owners put their boats in”. Shelby hopes boaters would get into the spirit of the day by dressing up and decorating their water craft.

“We would then have a parade around the lake. We want to actively involve our other lakeside towns of Adirondack and Horicon so they will become part of the parade route.”

The highlight of the parade would be a Blessing of the Boats. “We will invite local clergy and potentially get them on the Word of Life Pontoon Boat. We are still working out some of those details”

Shelby says it just not boats that will be blessed – but any water craft, powered and non-powered, including kayaks, canoes and jet-skis.

Other ideas being discussed are a dockside boating-nautical themed swap meet and town wide flea market, an antique boat display and a Captain’s Dinner, at one or several local restaurants.

“It would be a prix fixe menu with a seafood theme.”

Among the non-nautical ideas being discussed is a town wide garage sale. “We would have maps printed up with the locations of everyone in town having a sale. That map could be available for download from the Chamber’s website as well as having printed copies available around town.

To close out the day on Saturday, the organizers are hoping to have a fireworks show. “There are a lot of details to work out. And of course we need financial support and volunteers to make this work,” Shelby said.

Are you going to Schroon Lake’s Opening Weekend? Tell us in comments if you’ll be there and what you’d like to see as part of the celebration.