The Sunrise Rotary held one of Westport’s favorite events, The Great Duck Race and family festival at Jesup Green, and the crowd was one of the biggest ever. “Sales” of the ducks continued well past the 1:00 PM planned start time for the race making the event a tremendous fund raiser for the sunrise Rotary. The crowd filled the hill behind the race course all the way up to the entrance of the library, clearly showing the excellent turnout.

Photos By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.

Above, the more than 3,000 Ducks were placed into the bucket of the A J Penna front loader which then drove carefully to the start of the sluice. The Ducks were first dropped into the holding pond area before being released to head “down stream” into the finish box where the 10 winning ducks were plucked out by Duck Race volunteers and were then carefully placed in plastic bags numbered one through ten. First Selectwoman Jen Tooker acted as emcee during the race which was documented by News 12.

Westport Fire Department gave the ducks a helping hand by generating a current toward the finish line and spectators watched excitedly as the ducks “raced” toward their destination.

Photos By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.

Camera phones of the spectators and even the volunteers captured all the excitement as the Ducks slowly found their way toward the finish line.

There were lots of games and activities for kids at the event including creative games like toss the beanbag into the toilet, which hopefully will not be duplicated at home. When the race had concluded it was time to breakdown the “course”, and some of the kids decided to splash and play in the water as it slowly drained out.

Photos By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.

The event is made possible each year through the generosity of the many sponsors. Great food was available all day from food trucks.