When Sally Baker’s kids were growing up, she collected wooden ducks. Her affinity for waterfowl has grown even stronger now that she’s won the VFL Duck race twice in three years!
Baker’s rubber duck was the first to cross the finish line on the Soque River Saturday, claiming the $1,000 top prize for her. She won $1,000 in 2020, too, when Volunteers for Literacy held a drawing in place of the race due to COVID restraints.
“My son said it was the luck of the ducks,” Baker says.
That luck was plentiful this year as Volunteers for Literacy exceeded its $15,000 fundraising goal. The nonprofit’s executive director says the event brought in around $19,000.
“We could have raised more, but we ran out of ducks,” Phylecia Wilson tells Now Habersham.
Second place went to Matthew and Kim Pippin, owners of Pip’s Pools. The third prize was awarded to Barbara Hampton, who entered the race from out of town.
The VFL Duck Race is the main fundraiser for local literacy programs, and this was its eleventh year. The race is held annually in conjunction with Clarkesville’s Mountain Laurel Festival.
Duck race sponsors got in on the fun by decorating large yellow rubber ducks for the Dec-a-Duck contest. Festival-goers got to vote on their favorites, and the People’s Choice Award went to My Georgia Credit Union’s “Quack Sparrow.” Other Dec-a-Duck winners included Clarkesville Library’s “Quackleberry Finn.” The Northeast Georgian’s “Webster” and Elizabeth & Company’s “Quacketman” tied for third. Honorable Mention went to Cornelia Vet’s “Some Pig” from Charlotte’s Web, 1st Franklin’s “Franklin” from the book “When you Give a Mouse a Cookie,” and Hazel Grove Elementary’s “Hazelrella Goes to the Ball.”
