River crossing on thin ice?

Levittown - Organizers are scrambling for funding and volunteers for this year's event.

It's sink or swim time for those involved in pulling off this year's rendition of George Washington's fateful crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas Day.

With nearly no funds secured for the 2009 Christmas Crossing - an annual re-enactment that draws thousands of onlookers to Bucks County - and with the first significant date of rehearsals rapidly approaching, organizers admit they need to hustle.

And they need volunteers and donations to get them moving.

The problem this year is that the state museum commission, which oversees Washington Crossing Historic Park as well as the Christmas Crossing, anticipates further cuts to its budget and the possibility of layoffs.

Financial problems were part of the reason the park's visitors center fell into disrepair. Previous plans to renovate were delayed and bids came in over budget. Upper Makefield officials recently approved a $4.1 million development plan for several upgrades, including repairing a leaky roof and revamping the auditorium.

State Rep. Scott Petri, R-178, who is also a museum commission member, spoke at last week's Upper Makefield supervisors meeting to ask for the township's commitment to take on a larger role in the crossing now and in the future. He estimated the event could cost between $35,000 and $50,000.

Upper Makefield - along with the Bucks County Visitors Bureau - might become official co-licensees of the event, which would take some responsibility from the museum commission.

"We are going to present the license agreement to our board (tonight)," said the bureau's executive director, Jerry Lepping, who added that he doesn't see anything in the agreement that would be "a deal breaker."

According to Lepping, the bureau is considering producing a program book with sponsor advertising to be released at the event.

"We can utilize that to get donations from individuals and businesses," he said.

Organizers already have purchased the domain name www.FriendsOfWashingtonCrossing.com, a Web site where residents will be able to make donations. Lepping said it should be up and running shortly.

Lepping added that a good chunk of funding will come from the dress rehearsal scheduled for Dec. 13. The first practice to include a crossing of the river to New Jersey is set for Dec. 6.

"There is usually a small charge of $8 or $9 to attend the [dress] rehearsal," he said. "Lots of people show up for that so it gives us some decent seed money to pay for the actual crossing."

Organizers also are setting up a nonprofit 501c3 called "Friends of Washington Crossing" to allow local volunteers to have input into the event's long-term future.

All of the boatmen and historic re-enactors are in place for this year's crossing, said Lepping, but it takes more than just re-enactors to pull everything together.

This is where Petri's wife, Ellen Petri, comes into play.

"My role, as I see it so far, is volunteer coordinator," she said Tuesday, after spending the day with friends and helpers clearing out weeds outside the park's visitors center.

Ellen said she will also be very involved in the fundraising process.

"I think there will be a positive turnout from the community," she said.

Lepping agreed.

"At first, I was concerned that we could be setting ourselves up to fail, but we were pleasantly surprised that the staff (at the park) had already done an awful lot of the preliminary planning," he said. "I'm quite confident that the residents and the people who want to see this happen will step up."

Anyone interested in volunteering or contributing is asked to call the visitors bureau at 215-639-0300.

Christian Menno can be reached at 215-269-5081 or cmenno@phillyBurbs.com.

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