Rock The River Fun Run Raises Event-Record-Setting $40,000 For Cecil Dye Foundation

You might think—and you wouldn’t be alone—that hosting a go-fast boating event the weekend before the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout would be a bad idea if participation and fundraising were among your goals. The annual Central Missouri event, by all metrics including draw and reputation, is the biggest weeklong event of any given boating year. It attracts performance-boat fans from across the country and around the world. It has no equal.

Organizers Pat Feldhaus, Mike Caliguri and Matt Feldhaus had good reason to smile ahead of the Rock The River Fun Run. Photo by Matt Trulio/speedonthewater.com

But scale is one thing, proximity and the cost of travel another. The proof is that the three events last weekend—the Lake Champlain Poker Run in Vermont, the Rocky Top Power Run in Tennessee and the Rock The River Fun Run, which bounces between Ohio and Kentucky—attracted record-setting turnouts of regional and local performance boat enthusiasts.

Though precise fundraising total for all three events are not final, the fifth annual Rock The River happening eclipsed last year’s $25,000 fundraising total for the Cecil Dye Foundation by hauling in more than $40,000 for the local nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals battling cancer pay their basic living expenses.

“It’s just awesome,” said Pat Feldhaus, who organizes the event with his twin brother, Matt, and their friend, Mike Caligari. “We aren’t an ‘expensive’ poker run so we don’t generate a lot of money from entry fees. But we try to provide the experience of one to our participants.”

Feldhaus paused for a moment.

“This a blue-collar, middle-class fun run,” he continued. “I actually had Jordan Hart, a new participant who ran a 36-foot Statement Marine catamaran, tell me Rock The River was ‘the cheapest’ poker run he will participate in all year.”

From Friday’s lunch run through Saturday’s main event, the Rock The River Fun Run in Cincinnati was an absolute gem. Photo by Pete Boden copyight Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

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