From press release

AURORA, Ill.—The Illinois Paddling Council (IPC) is sponsoring the Second Annual Aurora Paddlesports Festival on June 12 and 13, 2010, in Aurora’s beautiful Phillips Park. The purpose of the Festival is to showcase the wide variety of human-powered boats, paddling clubs, and the local paddlesport retailers.

Phillips Park’s manmade “Mastodon Lake” will provide a clean, safe place to try out canoes and kayaks or take a class on how to paddle, while the expansive lawn next to the lake will fill with paddle craft dealers, paddling club displays, exhibits and demonstrations.

This fun-filled weekend of paddling activities is designed to attract novices, the merely curious and experienced paddlers alike. The Aurora Paddlesports Festival is based on the highly-successful “Paddling in the Park” event, which was held for 12 years in Palatine and drew thousands of visitors each year.

Sponsored by the IPC, the Chicago Area Sea Kayaking Association and the City of Aurora, the Paddlesports Festival will offer two-hour introductory lessons in canoeing and kayaking taught by American Canoe Association-certified instructors. Visitors can also test paddle the latest boat designs from well-known canoe and kayak manufacturers. The Aurora Paddlesports Festival will feature Illinois paddling clubs booths as well as exhibits by statewide  and local river and nature conservation organizations. More than 25 organizations and businesses will be represented.

The Aurora Paddlesports Festival will also include Illinois’ first local paddling film fest. The Prairie Paddling Film Fest will bring Illinois’ best paddling filmmakers to the Festival with ongoing films and live presentations by the filmmakers. The one-hour film presentations on both days are free to the public.

So bring the family and friends to the Aurora Paddlesports Festival to try out a boat, take a lesson, and meet the friendly paddlers, instructors and retailers of Illinois’ paddlesport community.

The following organizations and retailers will be at the Festival: Gander Mountain, Cabelas, Geneva Kayak, Chicago Kayak Club, Erewhon, Paddle & Trail/St. Line pads; Confluence Water Sports, CASKA, Indoor Summits, Kayak Chicago, Chicago WW Association, The Yak Schack, Bear Paw Adv. Inn, City of Yorkville, Girl Scouts, Usana Products, Northwest Passage, Cub Scouts, Prairie Coast Paddlers, PSC, Sierra Club, OpenLands, Witts Church Kay, LPBC, Rockpool Kayaks.

You can become a Sierra Club Runoff Ranger! Cindy Skrukrud, the Illinois Sierra Club’s Clean Water Advocate, will train willing paddlers to be on the lookout for unlawful pollution entering our state’s rivers and streams. The training will take place from noon to 2 p.m., Sunday, at the Aurora Paddlesports Festival. At this training session, you’ll learn where to check to see if a discharge you encounter in your paddles is properly permitted and whom to contact if you see pollutants such as sediment entering our waters. Sessions will include handouts. The training is free to all paddlers.

From the June 9-15, 2010 issue