Lucky Ducks

Have Their Day

By Dottie Evans

Unlike the enthusiastic audience of townspeople at the Third Annual Newtown Lions Club Duck Race, these little yellow rubber contestants did not mind getting wet.

The rain held off just long enough Saturday afternoon for nearly 2,000 rubber ducks to be dumped into the Pootatuck River at 2 pm and it did not take long for a hardy few to make the half-mile journey downstream to the finish line.

Meanwhile, the onlookers stayed dry while they cheered and screamed and crossed their fingers that their ducks would be the ones to finish first –– although, one elderly lady in the crowd was heard to remark, “I don’t know what the heck I’d do with a lawn tractor.”

Of course, for every duck that completed the race, there were probably 100 others that got snagged by sticks or stuck behind rocks or were caught in never-ending whirlpools beneath the waterfalls as the swollen Pootatuck River flowed swiftly through the Sandy Hook gorge.

“I had to poke at a big bunch that was caught in the shallows, just to get them going again,” admitted Lions Club President Gordon Williams, who added that technically they were not supposed to touch the ducks at all during the race.

Many families turned out for the event and the anticipation mounted as they waited alongside the riverbank for the big pay-loader to arrive with its cargo of rubber ducks. Mr Williams was very pleased at the fine turnout in spite of the rainy forecast.

“Really, although this is a fundraiser, we want to make this a special Newtown day,” Mr Williams said.

And The Winners Were…

The winner of the First Prize, a Cub Cadet tractor, was Lisa Pickard of Newtown; The “Night in New York” was won by Eddie Smolinski of Newtown; the X-Box Game Cube was won by Cory Spinelli of Southbury; and the winner of the framed print from Newtown artist Betty Christensen was Barbara Wyslick of Newtown.

The winners of the remaining prizes, in succession, were: Kristen Larson of Newtown; Eloy Nava of Darien; Charlie Poarch of Sandy Hook; Carol Lockwood of Sandy Hook; Craig Bird of Sandy Hook; Donna LaFrancesca of Sandy Hook; Erik Benson of Newtown; Lincoln Sanden of Sandy Hook; Oliver LaFrancesca of Sandy Hook; Colin O’Marra of Bethel; Ann Gantert of Sandy Hook; Joseph Prah of Southbury; Alan Pearlman of Sandy Hook; Maria Burke of Newtown; Joe Pisacreta of Newtown; Kyle Lampe of Bethel; Herb Mapen of Newtown; Cooper Dilworth of Newtown; Barbara Strashun of Newtown; and Anne Brennan of Sandy Hook.