Race Returns This Weekend—

Lions Club Is Ready To Celebrate A Decade Of Ducks

By Shannon Hicks

Rain or shine, The Great Pootatuck Duck Race has been presented on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend for the past nine years. The tenth annual offering of the community event will return to Sandy Hook Center this weekend, and Newtown Lions Club is planning for another successful day that will bring families and friends of all ages to the park at 3-5 Glen Road for a few hours of fun highlighted by the grand dumping of approximately 3,000 rubber ducks from the iron bridge that spans the Pootatuck on Church Hill Road at 2 pm.

Five members of the current Duck Race Committee sat down recently to look over what the fundraiser has accomplished in its first nine years — including cumulative profits of more than $100,000 — and shared some lessons learned during Duck Races 1–9 as the club makes final preparations plan to celebrate its first decade of ducks.

The 10th Annual Great Pootatuck Duck Race will be on Saturday, May 29, from 10 am until 2:30 pm. Ducks will be dumped at 2 sharp, and prizes should be announced about 20 minutes later. Leading up to and following the grand dumping, however, the public will have the opportunity to meet representatives from more than 40 local organizations and vendors and enjoy some live entertainment.

Duck Race raffle tickets are $5 each, and this year’s top three prizes — paid for by Newtown Lions Club, while 17 additional prizes have been donated by local businesses and organization — are $2,000 for the ticket holder whose duck crosses the finish line first; a night in New York (hotel accommodations, dinner, and theater tickets) for the second place winner; and an iPod Touch for the third place winner.

As of May 21, when five members the Duck Race Committee sat down to talk about their big project, 1,590 Duck Race tickets had been sold. The club has 3,500 tickets available for this year’s race, and is right on pace to sell all tickets.

“We sell a lot on the day of the race,” said George Arfaras.

“Sometimes as much as half of the tickets are sold that day,” added Paul Arneth. Also participating in the conversation were Tom Evagash, Bob Schmidt, and Gordon Williams.

The Great Pootatuck Duck Race was developed by a number of people. Mr Williams said he remembered reading something about Naugatuck’s Duck Race during his tenure as president of Newtown Lions. Lions Jim Larin and his wife, Nancy, who had seen the races in motion, were a good source of information. Nancy’s brother, a Rotarian, had been involved in a similar event when his club in Michigan hosted them more than a decade ago.

“[The Naugatuck event] was huge,” said Mr Evagash. Newtown modeled its race on what they saw in Naugatuck — community groups setting up booths, events for children, and the ceremonial dumping of the ducks into a river to determine the winners of a pool of raffle prizes — with one difference.

“Naugatuck had all the elements, but probably only six community groups participating,” said Mr Williams. “They had all the ideas we adopted, but we also wanted to make it even more special, more of a full community event.”

The idea of a “duck race” wasn’t overwhelmingly welcomed by the Lions Club membership, however.

“Yes, we were a little worried,” admitted Mr Evagash, who has been a member of the Duck Race Committee all along. “Some of us were thinking, going into that meeting where the idea was being put forward, ‘What the heck is a duck race?!’”

“There’s also an expenditure to lay out for the prizes, and we didn’t know if this thing was going to work,” said Mr Arneth. “But there’s something about Jim Larin [who the club credits for really getting the ball rolling for the Duck Race project]. He’s very quiet, but when he says something, you’d better listen. He has very good ideas and can make them happen.”

“What I wanted to know what how we were supposed to train these ducks to swim upstream?” Mr Arfaras deadpanned.

The group decided to go forward with the idea, and by Memorial Day weekend 2001 the Lions were ready for their newest fundraiser. Mr Larin served as Duck Race chairman for its first three years. Subsequent chairs have been Jerry Cole (2004-05), Matt DeAngelis (2006-07) and Mr Schmidt, who picked up the lead reins in 2008.

Lessons Learned

More than 200 people showed up for the first Duck Race in 2001, when 1,448 rubber ducks were put into the Pootatuck on an on-again, off-again rainy afternoon. Booths were set up along the sidewalks of lower Church Hill Road, as well as in the parking area at Newtown United Methodist Church, in the parking lot behind Katherine’s Kitchen (then Coach’s Deli) and The Iron Bridge (which was still 100 Church Hill), and in the lot at The Little Green Barn (now Sabrina Style). The location was central, but it also created traffic congestion for autos and pedestrians. It also left some of the community groups out of the loop when the focus of the day shifted.

Once the ducks are dumped into the river from a bucket loader driven by Mike Porco, who has always had the honor of being the Duck Dumper, the focus of the crowd shifts to the ducks and the race in the river. Ticket holders watch the ducks float down the Pootatuck to the finish line — the Dayton Street footbridge — and then wait to hear who won which prizes.

Mr Porco, who owns the land where the duck race is now situated, has been improving the lot behind the buildings at 3 and 5 Glen Road for a number of years. A paved parking lot that was installed in 2004 helped alleviate many of the parking issues of the first races. An outdoor stage now provides a place for performances, as well as the location where prize winners are announced.

In 2005 the event moved fully into the park area. Having tables and booths set up within the park’s boundaries keeps the majority of foot traffic to one specific area. Now that most events are set up within the park area, attendees can visit booths before, during, and after the big dumping of the ducks.

While the race and it related activities were relocated to the park area, the festival still seems to benefit the businesses within Sandy Hook Center, but vehicular traffic flow was noticeably lighter for those trying to drive along Church Hill Road, Washington Avenue, Glen Road, or Riverside Road.

“All the businesses in Sandy Hook Center, they support us,” said Mr Arfaras. “They get exposure and they sell tickets for us, even when some of them don’t do great business during the hours of the festival.”

By 2006 the club was selling 3,000 tickets per race. That was also the first year tickets sold out.

It was also a year to learn an important lesson: There is such a thing as too many prizes. With 60 prizes being offered that Duck Race day, the time it took to collect the ducks at the finish line, and then go through the 3,000 tickets to locate corresponding names to their prizes before being able to announce the list of winners was much too long.

“It was crazy,” admitted Tom Evagash. “It was just ridiculous trying to organize that.”

The prize lists have returned to 20 items in subsequent years and now that the Lions have a few years of practice under their belt, they figure it takes about 20 minutes from the time the ducks cross the finish line until the prize winners can be announced.

Another lesson picked up along the way was that hard plastic ducks are no match for soft rubber ducks.

“Three years ago we needed to replace some of our rubber ducks, but the company we were dealing with couldn’t fill the order. We had to go with hard plastic ducks,” said Mr Arneth.

Unfortunately, the weight of plastic ducks and their velocity coming out of the bucket loader was too much when the first ducks began to hit the water — and rocks under the water and along the edge of the stream. Tragedy struck. Many of the plastic ducks broke upon impact, while others split in half while floating down the river.

“I had a few people come up to me and say ‘I think that was my duck that hit the rock and cracked,’” said Mr Evagash.

That was the end of the hard plastic ducks in Newtown. Some were sold to Bethel when that town’s Lions Club began its own duck race (“We told them they needed an easier entry into the water, and a calmer river to float down,” Mr Arneth said) and others were sold as souvenirs in Sandy Hook the following year.

New Additions

The schedule of entertainment and the performances have been honed to move at a better pace now than even just a few years ago when it was first introduced.

“There’s more entertainment, for one thing,” said Mr Schmidt, “and it’s a much tighter program. The families love that, and it brings more families out to the event.”

This year’s schedule includes performances by DJ Bob (Mr Schmidt, who also serves as the day’s emcee), Moon Jumpers, Graceful Planet dancers, The Amazing Magic Marty, Porco Karate School, and the second annual tug of war between Newtown Lions Club and Rotary Club of Newtown members. This year’s tug of war is scheduled for high noon, and the host group is hoping to redeem themselves following last year’s loss to Rotary.

“We’d like to even the record,” Mr Evagash said this week.

Mr Schmidt will be joined by Newtown High School senior and Miss Teen Connecticut Paige Olson, who will serve as a guest emcee on Saturday.

Lathrop School of Dance will offer the afternoon’s final pre-duck dumping performance.

“Lathrop School is always the final performance,” said Mr Schmidt. “They get up there with dancing and a patriotic song.”

“It gets the audience on their feet, singing. It’s a nice way to end the entertainment,” added Mr Williams.

 “Of course the stage and the land is all thanks to Mike Porco,” Mr Schmidt pointed out. “We really couldn’t do this if we didn’t have his cooperation.

“This is a fun place. It’s what we’re trying to do here, is just to have fun,” Mr Porco said last week.

Community Participation

Forty groups are planning to have tables or booths set up at the Duck Race this weekend. The event allows groups to introduce themselves to a large crowd (much larger now than those 200 hardy souls who showed up for the first rainy race in 2001) of all ages and interests.

Tony Posca, the owner of Andrea’s Pastry Shop, has had a booth at the Duck Race just about every year. He will be back again this weekend, bringing trays filled with fresh baked cookies from his Queen Street bakery.

“I love the park down there, it’s beautiful. And the river is also gorgeous,” he said when asked why he looks forward to the Duck Race. “People are coming out for some fun, and there’s ducks going down the river… what’s better than that?”

Mr Posca’s cookies are offered free of charge, but he usually has a jar for donations.

“Anyone who wants to support the event for the day, they can leave a donation,” he said, “or they’re also welcome to just enjoy a snack on us.”

Newtown Woman’s Club also has had a table set up most years.

“We sell our pewter ornament, which is our largest fundraiser,” said immediate past co-president Marilyn Alexander. “We also have ornaments from previous years that are available for purchase.”

Newtown Historical Society has participated in the Duck Race for about five years, believes current Historical Society President Lincoln Sander.

“We started to participate the year they moved everything into the park. It gives exposure to the society, and it lets people know who we are,” he said. “We also offer publications about Newtown for sale. We have many different books dealing with Newtown that we sell. Not all published by us, other people’s books as well.”

Bonnie Miller been one of the historical society representatives at the Duck Race for a few years.

“Books will be available, and even if people don’t want to buy them, they are welcome to browse through them,” she said.

Big Money

The Duck Race Committee estimates that over the years, proceeds from the Duck Race — and this is after the club holds back seed money for the following year’s top three prizes, insurance, publicity, and tickets — have amounted to more than $100,000.

“We’ve given all that money back to the community,” said Mr Evagash. “This money is all for charitable purposes.”

In its first year the money was used by the Lions to finish work at Treadwell Park playground and its efforts to turn the former Orchard Hill Town Park into a true nature center. In 2005 a large part of the day’s proceeds, approximately $15,000, was a major boost for the club’s efforts in replacing the seats on the main floor of Edmond Town Hall’s theater. Canine Advocates of Newtown received more than $10,000 one year, a donation for their efforts to raise money for a new town dog pound.

During the course of the year the Lions also donate money to countless local and regional groups.

“Second to our car raffle, as far as bringing in funds, this is our largest annual fundraiser,” said Mr Williams. “But it’s certainly the largest event that we have the community participate in. And that was our goal all along: To create a great community event.”