Community Corner

Duck Race Canceled, Drawing to be Held Instead

Newtown Patch received the following statement from Duck Race committee chair Bob Schmidt:

"The Duck Race committee made a difficult but sensible decision this morning to cancel the duck race and all the included events.

The ground is wet and slippery, and the rain is predicted to continue all day. It would not be safe for people to be walking around in the wet grass. Instead of dumping the ducks in the water, we made a decision to have a drawing at 2:30 today.

We came to the conclusion that the current is so strong in the Pootatuck River that the ducks could just pass by the collection system and we would not be able to select the winner in a fair way.

We were also concerned that the river crew who sets up the collection system and captures all the ducks could be seriously injured by the strong currents.

We decided to use the drum used for the Mustang Raffle to select the winners. The committee will gather on the stage at Mike Porco's parking lot, where we were going to have this event. We will gather today at 2:30 and draw 20 winners.

We were very sad we had to cancel this event, but the safety of everyone is more important. We all look forward to the event every year, but next year has got to be better."


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