NIAGARA FALLS — One day a year, for the past eight years, Sal Anello has been floating down the Niagara River with some friends. This year, Anello has a lot more friends.
“I was playing hockey with some friends and we just got together to go floating down the river,” he said. “The first year, we had seven people. The following year it doubled. Then it got up to about 39 people and 55 people.”
For the next few years, it really didn’t grow much from there. Until this year. For whatever reason, the power of social media has turned Anello’s annual floatation adventure with friends into a community event, purportedly to be attended by nearly 1,000 people on July 24.
“My intention was never for it to get to be as big as it’s going to be,” he said.
That caused Anello to have to change his plans. Floatillas 1-8 have been in the Lower Niagara River. From Lewiston to Youngstown. But the U.S. Coast Guard asked him to change the date of the event due to another event in Youngstown on the same day,
“When I started to see so many people hop on board, there was no way the logistics of the river … would be conducive to having us there,” he said. “I didn’t think it’d be a big deal if 50 people were floating down the river. But this thing just grew.”
What was Anello to do?
“Am I the guy to create this buzz … and then just delete the event? Or do I go through with it,” he asked. “I decided to be the latter.”
Anello called an audible, moving the float to the Upper Niagara River. The Floatilla is set to launch at noon from Isle View Park and take a three-hour leisurely cruise to Gratwick Park.
Those in attendance, are asked to arrive at Isle View between 10:30 and 11 a.m., inflate their floats, don their life jackets, tie their crafts to each other and enter the river at noon.
“It’s the biggest informal gathering ever,” he said. And he hopes to keep it that way.
Anello said he was told he didn’t need a permit for the float and didn’t want to be the one to fill one out if he did. After all, who wants to be responsible for 1,000 strangers floating down one of the most powerful rivers in the world?
In the end, Anello expects it to be the same good time he’s always had — floating down the river with friends.
“We just float for a few hours and drink,” he said. “It’s nothing new.”
For more details and updates, visit the Floatilla 9 event page on Facebook.
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