WARWICK — Come Sunday, Warwick residents will climb aboard makeshift cardboard boats and attempt to sail across Moore’s Pond for the third year in a row.
The “Corregatta,” as the race is called, is one of the most popular features of Warwick Old Home Days, which will be held Saturday and Sunday.
According to Larry Carey, chairman of the Old Home Days Committee, the celebration dates back more than a century.
“In the late 1800s, when they built the Town Hall they had a big celebration,” Carey said. “It was such a success they decided that they’d do something like that every year. It’s carried on in one way or another ever since.”
Today, the Old Home Days includes the “Corregatta,” a satellite dish toss, the Warwick Fire Department’s muster, a tag sale, a bounce house and games for children, a parade through town, a play presented by the Warwick Arts Council and plenty of food.
The weekend will kick off Saturday morning with coffee and doughnuts in Town Hall at 8 and the tag sale on the Town Common. A parade will start at Warwick Community School at 9:30 a.m. and make its way through the center of town.
At 11 a.m., the Warwick Free Public Library, 4 Hotel Road, will give a presentation about Warwick Trinitarian Congregational Church, also known as Metcalf Chapel. The presentation is a new feature of this year’s Old Home Days.
“That building was moved 100 years ago to where it is today, and they’re going to tell a little story about that,” Carey said.
Lunch will be served by the fire department at 11:30 a.m. on the Town Common. Attendees can get ice cream from Metcalf Chapel from noon to 2 p.m. and baked goods will be sold on the Common throughout the day.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Common, Carey said, attendees are invited to participate in an open mic, which has historically attracted talented singers. As part of the open mic, organizers will present an award to an honorable resident.
The Warwick Historical Society Museum will also be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, displaying old photos and a horse drawn hearse.
Supper, one of the few events that requires money, will be held at Town Hall at 6 p.m. Carey said the supper is such a popular draw, as evidenced by the fact that organizers almost always run out of food.
Saturday’s events conclude with a 7 p.m. play titled “Albert Einstein: Relatively Speaking” at Town Hall. The one-man show, which portrays Einstein’s mind as well as his human side, is performed by longtime Boston area actor and storyteller George Capaccio.
On Sunday, both a special church service and the Firemen’s Muster start at 10:30 a.m. The muster, which will be held at Fellows Memorial Field, allows local firefighters to compete against each other in timed tasks such as unrolling hoses and shooting water at targets.
“Whatever they have to do for training, they do for the muster,” Carey said.
At 12:30 p.m. on the Town Common, attendees will see who can throw their satellite dish the farthest during the toss organized by the Broadband Committee. All lead up to the “Corregatta” at 2 p.m.
“Everybody in town builds their own cardboard boat and they see which ones will stay together,” Carey said. “The kids really get into that and it draws a pretty big crowd.”
According to Diane Ellis, a member of the Moore’s Pond Beach Committee that helps organize the “Corregatta,” there are categories for adults and children, and first, second and third prizes for each category. Spectators also get to vote on their favorite, and an additional “Sinker Award” is given to the boat that sinks first.
Fourteen rules govern the race, including that the entire boat hull and seating must be made out of cardboard, without tape or plastic wrapping. For safety, all entrants will wear life vests and must be able to swim.
The closing event of the weekend will be hymn singing at Metcalf Chapel at 6:30 p.m.