(Arnolds Park)– The Iowa Great Lakes Rotary car on Smith’s Bay has gone through the ice. Unofficial reports had the car going into the drink around 10:15 am this (Wed., Feb. 18th) morning. The OFFICIAL time will be determined once the car and the clock inside of it are retrieved. At that point, the winner of this year’s contest will be determined.
Erin Reed of the Iowa Great Lakes Rotary Club tells KUOO news this didn’t set a record for the earliest in the season the car has gone through, but she says it comes close…
“This was fairly early for us. Usually we’re looking at March. The earliest year that it’s gone in was 2024 when it went in February 8th and here we are looking at February 18th. It all came about pretty fast. You know usually it hangs on for a little while when it’s leaning like that but yeah, it just went down in a hurry.”
Reed says they aren’t sure yet when they’ll retrieve the car…
“We’ll have to reach out to the tow company and then Arnolds Park-Okoboji Fire/Rescue and the Dive Team and see what works for them. I’m sure they’re going to want to wait for this wind to die down and find a good day when it’s calm to get out there and get that out of there. We’ll get after it as soon as we can.”
Reed says the proceeds from the Car Drop Contest each year go to support youth-related projects the club conducts…
“A big focus with mental health and working with area schools lately and of course we’ve got Shelby Duis Park over there at Elinor Bedell Park that we continue to keep up and we’re looking at some options to do some improvements there, as well.”
This year’s winner of the $1,000 prize will go to the person with the ticket that has the time closest to when the car actually went through, as determined by a clock inside the vehicle.
