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Navarro ISD quacking about Duck Fest
Published April 7, 2009
GERONIMO — The quack attack is back.
Duck Fest 2009, again sponsored by the Navarro Education Foundation, is scheduled for Saturday, May 9, and the organizers have already begun to get the word out.
On Monday Navarro Elementary students were greeted in their classrooms by the event’s mascot, “Duckie,” and also Principal Les Dragon — who was donning some very unique headwear.
“Yes sir, I’m wearing a duck hat,” he said proudly. “With feathers, mind you.”
The administrator was just showing his support for the event, which was using an early promotion opportunity to offer elementary students the chance to earn their very own rubber ducks just in time for Easter.
“All of the elementary is going to participate by being in a coloring contest,” Dragon said. “Each kid will color a picture of a duck and they’ll actually get a little rubber duck to put in the bath tub, and just from there, we’re hoping that the word goes home over the next month.”
Foundation President Kim Mueller said that this year’s Duck Fest will feature a similar line-up of activities as last year, including a 5K run/walk, plenty of games for kids, and, of course, the main event — the duck race itself.
“We’ll start out with a 5K at 9 a.m. on May 9, as we’ve done the past couple of years, then we’ll move over to the high school courtyard, where we’ll once again have some games for the kids — contests and races,” Mueller said. “This year we’ll have a waddle race instead of a waddle contest, so that ought to be fun. And then at 11 a.m., we will head over to Geronimo Creek and once again have the rubber duck race, and we’re hoping to have over 3,000 ducks this year racing down the creek.”
Now available for adoption, racing ducks can be purchased through order forms that can be obtained either online — at www.nisd.us/Foundation/duckfest — or at any Navarro ISD campus, with Paypal even becoming an accepted form of payment this year.
Mueller said that the foundation’s focus on notifying the public of the event will continue through next month, with a very special promotion held a little less than two weeks from now.
“Mainly our big push week will be the week of April 20, when we’ll have the principal’s challenge,” Mueller said. “Basically, how that will work, is the campus that has the most ducks adopted will automatically receive what we’re calling the ‘Principal’s Grant Award’ in the amount of $2,000 — and the principal will be able to use that at his discretion.”
And that’s one prize that Dragon will be seriously gunning for — among the other grants that will be funded by Duck Fest.
“What it’s for is just getting money together — funds that it is — for SMART boards, Dukane projectors, anything that can help our students learn better,” Dragon said. “It’s a real rigorous process as far as the teachers having to apply for these grants and so there’s a little competition amongst the teachers to get what they need, but it will take their classes to a higher level.”
But that’s not the only reason that the week of April 20 will be an important one for Navarro educators. As Mueller noted, one of the Navarro ISD board members has agreed to sweeten the pot during this time period.
“The other thing that was kind of neat was that we’ve had one of our board members commit to match every duck adopted that week,” Mueller said. “So we’ll get double our funds that week. We’re hopeful that it’ll create a lot of excitement for our Adopt-a-Duck.”
For the next few weeks, however, the hype will continuously be built by those in the Navarro ISD, including the principal with the best hat in the district.
“We’re just going to do a great job creating interest and promoting Duck Fest 2009,” Dragon said. “Better than we ever have before.”
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