week of 3/27/02
 
 
 

Student artwork selected for Ducks on the Tuck competition
SMN
At first, the art competition sounds simple enough — draw some ducks floating down the Tuckasegee River.

But once you see what Jackson County students come up with as a design for “Ducks on the Tuck” T-shirts, you can’t help but be impressed.

The student who won last year’s contest – Jarrod Couch of Cullowhee Valley Elementary – drew a duck running on the river as it broke the finish-line ribbon. And this year, Fairview Elementary student Molly Gehring won the right to have her design – several ducks rushing downstream in inner-tubes – placed on the front of the “2002 Ducks on the Tuck” T-shirts.

“My first idea was to have the ducks in rafts,” said the sixth-grader. “But then I thought about how sometimes when we go on the river, we go tubing. I thought it was neat, so I decided to draw that.”

The T-shirt competition is one of the first signs that the most famous duck race in Jackson County is fast approaching. The annual race, which originated last spring, takes place at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 27, when hundreds of miniature rubber ducks are dumped into a tributary of the Tuckaseigee River from the Depot Street Bridge in downtown Dillsboro.

Each duck bears a number on its belly, and area residents are able to adopt as many ducks as they want at $5 each. All proceeds from “Ducks on the Tuck” go to the Jackson County New Century Scholars program, which provides last-dollar scholarships to deserving youngsters in the area.

If your duck crosses the finish line at Western Builders Inc., in Dillsboro first (or near the front), you will win one of several dozen prizes. Some of the prizes up for grabs this year include a beach vacation to Kiawah Island, S.C.; a beach vacation to Garden City, S.C.; a one-night stay at the Applegate Inn in Dillsboro; a set of four car tires; grocery shopping sprees; and many more.

You can adopt a duck from any New Century Scholar in Jackson County or from any of the following locations: Roberson Supply, Crisp Hughes Evans LLR, Jackson County Board of Education, Cashiers-area Chamber of Commerce, Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, or any public school in Jackson County.

For more information about Ducks on the Tuck, call Patty Wilson at 293.5667.