Staunton River Fun Float Day has subdued atmosphere

Who needs a bunch of drunks on the river, if they want to put themselves in danger, do it on their on property and do not waste the time of rescue workers to drag them out of the river. Ms. Fannon states that it was started as a family fun day event, but then cries that they lost money, because they could not have the drunks to purchase breakfast. Drunks and water do not mix, the police did an excellant job in making sure of it.

I was there and I can understand increased control for the rowdies, but the Park had three times more police present than there were people. State troopers, EMTs. It was a joke. The accident happened half way down last year. Just what were they going to do with three big rescue vehicles at the starting point. I'm sure the Whole town of Brookneal felt the lack of income from this event,Not just the ruitan club. Too bad that the lack of control where and when it was needed in the past,led to a rediculess EXCESSIVE reaction that most likely killed this event for the future.Drove 5 hours to get there just to find an allstate police gathering. Get real. what did they expect to have happen? even the non drinkers were leaving just because the atmosphere was like a prison camp.I was one of them

The fact that the event started as a "Family Event" is silly to keep pushing at people, we are talking about something that started 33 years ago, I have a good friend who is 64 years old and he rem going down there 25 years ago and it was a big party. It is was sad to drive up to the event and see the NO WAITING to get into the river, it would normally take almost an hour just to get from the end of the road to the loading area, but this year NOTHING> the park is normally so full that people would camp on the side of the park road, this year I saw maybe 10 campers total, and I wish they would be honest on the amount of people that showed up, it was estimated that less than 100 people vs the estimated 3-4 thousand that usually float, why not have the safety precautions in place and still allow people to enjoy them selves, a local store in Brookneal sold ONE bag of ice for the event ONE..... I met people that drove from Indiana last year to come to the event. Not anymore. And now there telling people that they could of had a beer if they got on the water via private property, but for weeks they have been telling people that even if you are on the river via private, if they catch you drinking even on the river they will give you a ticket. Way to try and bail out of the fiasco. Why cant there just be one day of fun for Brookneal? you dont tell people they cant drink at a concert right? well this was like a big concert for thousands of people, and it is a shame to take that away from so many people because of one accident, and be honest about that as well COPS, he as a drug addict, and it was no ones fault but his own that he made the choices that he made, even if you had cops, and boaters, and helicopters last year, it would not of made a difference in that situation. For 32 years the event has no accidents and that accident has now destroyed what was once so looked forward too.

I normally had a group of 20 people that came from 3 different states, and this time NO one went not even me.

I think it's stupid that some idiots had act like retards and take all kind of drugs while floating the river. They banded the beer, not the acutal beer drinkers. I went last yr., we had to save one girl from drowning and she sure did have something other than beer. She told us she wanted to drown and kept walking into the river backwards. She was NOT drunk. She was on something else. It's those idiots that banded beer. Idiots who do cocaine, xanax, marajuana.. all mixed together. Thanks to the stupid idiots like them. Float day is going to be upstream from now on.

We were there Friday just before 5pm ready to set up camp and have a good time. We sat there for 15 minutes and watched them write tickets to one camp and make them leave, then they started harassing the next camp and they were looking in people's coolers for no reason. There were 10 or 15 cops standing around the picnic table alone, and at least 30 or 40 present.(more than there were campers). They had set up a headquarters and tent at the top of the hill.
The real reason for the ridiculous show of force was because one of their deputies embarrassed the department when his picture from last year's float day ended up on the internet.

this is all well and good. The whole county will suffer now,fun float day is dead and buried. Thanks pigs