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First Duck
Derby a success for Columbus Education Foundation
The first Columbus Duck Derby was a success, providing entertainment for a cheering crowd at Beason’s Landing on the Colorado River. Three thousand rubber ducks were dropped from the East River bridge in unison before they floated to the finish line with a big boom to contain the rubber ducks.
The winners of the inaugural Duck Derby are Lindsi Graham in 1st place, Kathleen Wick in 2nd place and Tatum Moffett 3rd place. The winners earned $1,000, $500 and $250 respectively for their placement. Congratulations to the winners and all who helped make this event a success.
The Duck Derby volunteers met some difficult challenges. One of them was positioning the boom across the Colorado River. It was a requirement for the race, not only to determine winners but to make sure that no ducks leaked past the blockade. The river current caught many of the volunteers by surprise as they had to fight back the current to anchor the boom on the sandbar. Success was theirs with the help of the Columbus Fire Department boat and the Game Wardens’ boat. Not one rubber duck escaped—all 3000 finished the race for a close finish.
As the crowd cheered their duck to victory there was only one youngster that was disappointed. He yelled, “They’re fake ducks!” to an uproar of laughter as the young child assumed “real, live” ducks were in the race.
The Columbus Education Foundation is proud to recognize its major sponsors: Drymalla Construction, AL&M, Baumgart Agency and Mark A Chapman Foundation.
CEF is also thankful to the other sponsors and to the tremendous support from the entire community. A special shout out to the leaders of the Duck Derby Becca Edmiston and Mandi Kulhanek who did a stupendous job in organizing this inaugural event with plans to return next year.
The proceeds from this Duck Derby will go to scholarships and classroom grants for Columbus ISD. Columbus Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to enhancing the educational experience for students and providing teachers with financial support in the form of classroom grants to bring the students extra experiences. For more information www.ColumbusEducation-Foundation.org.
