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Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Duck Fest prepares for launch
Published April 22, 2009
GERONIMO — Duck Fest 2009, presented by the Navarro Education Foundation (NEF), is quickly approaching — but webbed-feet won’t be required.
There will, however, be plenty of waddling and quacking taking place when the annual event gets underway on May 9 at the Navarro High School campus.
The highlight of the festival is a rubber duck race down the Geronimo Creek, with ducks sponsored by NISD families or supporters.
With a fairly large number of ducks already adopted before Monday, the NEF is preparing for what is expected to be its busiest stretch, as every racing duck sold this week will end up bringing in twice as much money for the foundation’s grant program.
“This is our push week,” said Kim Mueller, NEF president. “All ducks that will be adopted this week will be matched by one of our Navarro Education Foundation board members, up to 2,000 ducks, and so we’re very hopeful to reach that 2,000 duck mark by Friday. At this time, I think we’re doing fairly well, we have almost 900 ducks that have been adopted.”
Mueller said that the Duck Fest T-shirts will likely be finished by the end of the week and that the amount of ducks sold may lead to a very special prize for one of the Navarro ISD campuses, who are currently engaged in a friendly competition with one another.
“The Principal’s Grant Award will be identified at the end of this week,” Mueller said. “Whichever campus adopts the most ducks will receive a $2,000, home-free type grant that the principal will be able to use at his discretion on his campus — which should be an exciting thing for the teachers and the parents. We really want to get more parents involved and excited about what’s going to happen.”
The event itself — held on Mother’s Day weekend this year — is aimed at family fun, but offers activities for all. A 5K “Waddle & Run” race will be held at 8 a.m. at the high school, with games and activities following an hour later.
Included in those will be the much-anticipated return of the quacking contest and the first-ever race that will judge the contestants’ ability to waddle the fastest.
Needless to say, each event requires an expert panel of judges to preside over such proceedings.
“Any adult or child who would like to sign up that morning can come up and we’ll line them up in groups of about five or six and we’ll have some judges there, which will be the school board of Navarro ISD, we have the criteria, and we select the best quacker of the day,” Mueller said. “For the waddle race, we’ll put them in groups of about eight and it will be about like a 50-yard-dash, except they’ll be waddling. And one of the key factors will be their ability to waddle properly, and our judges will have the daunting role of identifying if their waddle is a real waddle or not a real waddle, and we’ll probably have prizes for the top three in each age group.”
After victors have been decided for those games, the morning’s main event will begin at 11 a.m. at Geronimo Creek, as all of the ducks will be released and begin their wet ride to the finish line. Mueller said that exact prizes have yet to be finalized for each of the various Duck Fest winners — including the owners of the first 30 rubber ducks to finish the race — but that some very nice incentives are already coming together.
“We have a list of about 40 prizes at this time,” she said. “Some of the items that we have are Schlitterbahn passes, $200 worth of gas cards, $200 worth of Visa cards, $200 worth of Home Depot cards, and I know we have some Navarro coasters that American Bank of Texas donated to the cause — they’re very nice coasters. We also have a leaf blower form Ewald Tractors.
“That’s just a sampling of what we have, and by the end of the week, we feel like we’ll have a package put together to present to the community.”
Mueller reminds all owners that the more ducks they have in the race, the better their chances are at taking home a prize. And with no limit to the number of ducks that can be adopted, some are already taking advantage of the opportunity.
“Last week, we had one parent adopt 200 ducks,” Mueller said, “which was $1,000 worth of ducks.”
Adoption forms for the racing ducks, which are $5 each — but also included in some special package deals — are available online at www.nisd.us/Foundation/duckfest . Those interested in competing in the 5K can also sign up for that event on the Web site, as well as view the official rules and regulations of the duck race.
All duck adoption forms and fees must be received by May 6 in order to be a part of Duck Fest’s featured event.
“It’ll be a good opportunity for families to get out and just enjoy each other and a have good time,” Mueller said. “It should be a great day.”
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