There is a regular article that runs in the opinion section of The York Daily Record where white roses and thorns are handed out to individuals, organizations, or anything else in the news. Thanks to YDR the kind mention and roses for Alicia’s Boat!

ROSES: To the Daugherty family for fulfilling Alicia Daugherty’s dream of creating a boat out of plastic bottles. Alicia, 21, died in a car accident in June and was not able to complete her recycling project. Her family recently launched The Alicia Marie in local waterways. It floats!

YDR Opinion: White roses and thorns | Via ydr.com

It started with posting a simple photo to the uLocal section of the WGAL website. A few days later we received a message from Lori Burkholder about doing a story on The Alicia Marie. After working out some details we all met at Pinchot Park for interviews and to get some video of the boat. The story aired during the News 8 Today newscast on September 23, 2011 with promos running the day before and an encore run during the 11:00 newscast! Thank you so much to Lori Burkholder and WGAL for taking an interest in and sharing our story. It has been a wonderful experience!

Air Times:

• 09/23/2011 6:34 AM During News 8 Today
• 09/23/2011 11:18 PM During News 8 at 11

Our story was featured on the front page of the Local section in the Thursday, September 23rd 2011 York Daily Record!! Thanks to the YDR for the boat publicity, Bill Landauer for all your reporting about Alicia, and Chris Dunn for the photos.

The Alicia Marie is the creation of their daughter, sister and friend. Alicia Marie Daugherty had started building the boat, but never got to finish it. She died in a car accident in Selinsgrove on June 3. She was 21 years old.

So, the family finished it for her….

Before she died, Alicia had completed and tested the pontoons. That was the hard part.

The family took the finished boat on her maiden voyage in August on the Conewago Creek. “We learned about balance,” Denny said. The Alicia Marie had tipped, sending them all into the water. But she floated.

“It was therapy,” Karl explained.

On Aug. 21, Alicia’s family hosted a ceremonial launch for the boat in Gifford Pinchot State Park. Sixty people came.

Family finishes daughter’s project | Via York Daily Record

Turns out there is an annual Boat Parade in York! We found out about it too late to enter, but we just had to check it out. So we went to Bantz park to size up our competition for next year. Unfortunately, hurricane Irene brought unfavorable weather, and the boat parade was canceled. However, we spent a few minutes chatting with the organizers of the event, and they asked us to wait around a bit because a reporter was on his way. So when a story ran that Sunday about Yorkfest, there was a special article about Alicia’s Boat. This was the first little bit of boat publicity.

Among those who had showed up to Bantz park to watch were the Daugherty family from Dover and Abby Householder, a friend of the family.

Last weekend, the group christened a pontoon boat they had built — invented, actually — in Pinchot Lake. They named it Alicia Marie for Alicia Marie Daugherty, Karl and Diana Daugherty’s 21-year-old daughter, who died in a June 3 car accident in Selinsgrove….

Alicia, who’d been an environmental sciences major at Messiah College, and Abby, who attends York College, came up with the idea. On a break from school, they heard some of their friends talk about how they’d attempted to build their own boat and failed.

Soon they were collecting bottles wherever they could find them. “I remember driving with (Alicia) and her shouting ‘Stop! There’s a plastic bottle!'” Diana said.

Irene makes new plans for Yorkfest | Via York Daily Record.