By MADISSON HEINL
Communications Specialist, Center for Lakes & Streams at Grace College

WINONA LAKE — This year’s Northern Indiana Lakes Festival on June 11 and 12 will feature several new events, including the Crawfish Adventure Race, presented by Metzger’s Outdoors and Paddle Wars, presented by P4C Paddlers for Conservation.

The Lakes Festival is an annual celebration of our local lakes and waterways. Events like the Crawfish Adventure Race and the first-ever Paddle Wars give Kosciusko County residents and visitors even more opportunities to interact with a local lake.

Metzger’s Outdoors is located in the Warsaw/Winona Lake area and organizes adventure races which can involve canoeing, kayaking, obstacle courses and other water activities. Races can include all types of terrain, from the deep woods, to swamps, lakes and rivers.

The first-ever Paddle Wars is an event organized by the P4C Paddlers for Conservation Club, a non-profit, volunteer-based organization dedicated to promoting paddling, education and conservation. For this event, teams of four will participate in a tug-of-war in which two canoes will be tied together stern to stern; the first team to pull their opponent past the center line (rope) wins.

To find out more about these events, or to register, visit lakesfestival.org.

Festival admission is free and other activities include a swim race, kayaks for kids, food, a live animal show, petting farm, open swimming, kids’ activities and exhibitors, and Saturday fireworks presented by Zimmer Biomet.

Commercial vendor applications and food vendor pre-applications are still being accepted; the deadline for these applications is June 1. Other festival event information can be found online at lakesfestival.org.

This year’s top sponsors include Zimmer Biomet, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Kosciusko County Convention, Recreation and Visitor Commission, DePuy Synthes, Louis Dreyfus Commodities, Maple Leaf Farms, and Silveus Insurance Group.