The company hired to promote the Regatta at Lake Arthur is working to ensure the event is a success next year.

Holly Muchnok, owner of East Wing Events in Allegheny County, said she’s talked to a number of people who have been involved in previous regattas, and they said this is the “most enthusiasm and most forward motion we’ve ever had” in planning the annual event, which is Aug. 2-3.

The Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau several months ago hired the company for three years to organize and promote the regatta, which has suffered from declining attendance for many years. The tourism bureau budgeted $30,000 to pay for the first year of the event planner, while it will only pay about $5,000 to East Wing Events in the final year of the contract.

The tourism bureau could spend about $50,000 on the three-year contract with East Wing Events.

When the bureau board decided to hire an event planner, bureau President Jack Cohen called the regatta “pretty much a dead event” and urged his board to hire an outside company to run it.

Enter Muchnok, who owns the company in Gibsonia. Since being hired in September, Muchnok and her staff have worked to organize sponsors, promotions and other aspects of the event.

Muchnok said she already has 14 sponsors for the 2014 regatta. This shows a willingness and desire to restore the regatta to its heyday, Muchnok said, to a time when thousands of people used to show up to Moraine State Park.

“Everybody is upping their game this year,” Muchnok said. “They see this as a turning-point year and they want to get on board with it. Everyone seems to be really excited and ready for this to be a phenomenal experience in 2014.”

Perhaps the biggest development is a $10,000 grant East Wing Events got.

That money from the Urban Land Institute will help “bring together some of the best minds that deal with open spaces and parks to help us reimagine what the regatta could look like,” Muchnok said.

The grant also will help East Wing Events in getting new events for the regatta. According to Muchnok, the company is planning new activities to bring people out to the state park.

“There will be people on hand to teach and give lessons for free for things like wind surfing, kayaks, canoes and fly fishing,” she said. “If you can do it on the water, we’re trying to get someone out there who can teach it safely.”

Cohen said that planning for the regatta is “far ahead of where we were this time last year” and that East Wing Events has already “a good group of volunteers” to help.

“They’ve already put a lot of time into this, but they’re really well organized,” Cohen said. “They’re doing really well in getting out, meeting with folks and getting people on board.”

The planners at East Wing Events also are including people like Dustin Drew, the park manager at Moraine.

It makes sense to include people like Drew, being that the regatta is held at the state park every year.

“We’re working with them pretty closely and attending monthly meetings,” Drew said. “Certainly there’s a good partnership there, being that we’re the host of the regatta. Right now we’re just providing guidance on what is and isn’t allowed as well as contributing our own thoughts and ideas.”