Summerville’s Duck Derby Dynasty starts with a Bluesy Bang

Summerville Main Street hosted its first Ducky Derby and Duckfest on Saturday and drew a crowd of over 1,000. Festivities kicked off at 10:00 a.m. and ran until 3:00 p.m. along Town Creek Trail, the Summerville Depot, and East Washington Street. The free event was a fun-filled day of activities for children and adults, with the arrival of a the Tennessee Valley Railroad Double Steam Engine Passenger Train, the North Georgia Cruisers Cruise-In, food vendors, a free jump house, children’s activities, local entertainment, and an exciting rubber duck race. The Ducky Derby Race was the highlight of the event.

A total of 1350 ducks were adopted for the race. In spite of a brief rain shower the race was a big hit. The starting line for the race was Town Creek at the Express Lube location. The ducks raced approximately 30 minutes to the finish line at the East Washington Street Bridge.

The first Ducky across the finish line won $500.00 in prize money for the adopted rubber duck owner. Six-year-old Bluesy Caroline Harrell happened to pick the luckiest and fastest ‘quack of the pack’.   Bluesy who is an upcoming first grader at Menlo Elementary School told All On Georgia she planned to donate the $500 to a charity to fight childhood cancer. Her name may be Bluesy, but this young girl has a heart of gold.

Susan Locklear, Main Street Manager at the City of Summerville was the mastermind behind the event. “Bluesy is such a sweet girl. She was SO excited when I called her name. Susan Bryant is receiving $50 for selling the adoption ticket to the winning duck’s owner. That worked out good as well. She and her husband Mike, ‘the Waving Man’ bring so much joy to the community,” says Locklear.

Main Street Summerville has many more fun filled events on the calendar this summer. Up next will be the Rissi Palmer concert on Saturday, June 25. It’s a free concert and they we be shooting footage at the concert and all weekend for a music video for her song Summerville!

It is great to see the hard work of so many paying off as Summerville turns into a destination others seek on the weekend.