The 2006 Wakka was a highly appreciated event and has spawn into something everyone looks forward, year after year. It all started after I went down to West Virginia during my senior year of college with a bunch of colleagues. The trip was such a blast and I knew that I would definitely return. Seeing that the trip was relatively cheap, it was easy for everyone to go, especially since most of us are in college and broke as hell. This was the perfect trip.

In 2006 I started to plot out the event and I got overwhelming results. There was so many people that wanted to go that I upped the group size substantially. I knew then that this trip was a monumental event. We had 45 people that went with us for the inaugural trip in 2006. The trip was phenomenal. Everyone had the times of their lives and it was an unbelievable 4 day party! There was so many new friendships that were born from this trip (I noticed all the Facebook friendships the following week of the trip). At this point it was only a matter of time that we would do it again.

As early as November 2006 (only a few months after the first trip) I was being asked when they could sign up for next year's whitewater rafting trip. Seriously, its nearly a year away, but everyone was ready to return. So in late December of 2006 I booked the second trip and gave it it's name, The Wakka. The hype begins early and for everyone that experiences The Wakka, they'll definitely put that exclamation point at the end of their summer.

Thank you to all the original participants of The Wakka 2006. If it wasn't for the success of this trip, we wouldn't have made it the annual trip that is today.

~Anthony Montalbano

Below is a list of the original members of the Wakka. It started with this:

Nick Smith, Jenny Hunter, Aaron Vitale, Joann Vitale, Natalie Hunwick, Adam Wilson, Dan Hunwick, Joel DiMaggio, Sienna Montalbano, Kelly Carpenter, Bob Peters, Mariano Montalbano, Kellie Clincher, Glen Owens, Erin Ross, Anthony Danko, Nathan Roller, Jon Chelsey, Adam Trussler, Pete Piccarello, Brad Kleinow, Holly Kleinow, Zach Nahas, Chris Roca, Nick Press, Nikki Ferree, Marv Aboona, Stephanie Kapusta, Liz Roggenbuck, Carrie Fontana, Jerome DiGuiseppe, Matt Jakee, Elyse DeRonne, Nikki Brostek, Ashley Allison, Scott Benedict, Jon Kilburn, PJ Scally, Lisa Guisty, Neil Smith, Olivia Montalbano, Rusty Kostsuca, Brittany Koester, Nikki Hicks, Anthony Montalbano