ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Saturday dawned clear and sunny, and for some, the weather was not the only perfect thing about that day.
Saturday was the 23rd running of the Duck Race Festival, and it ended up being a very good day for multiple community members. Winners of the $10,000 in prize money from the race were Miguel Esparza in winning the $5,000 grand prize, Jesus Vidal in second place winning $2,000, Carmen Flores in third place winning $1,000, Jess Strickland in fourth place winning $500, Renee Haralson in fifth place winning $400, Lisa Olsen in sixth place and winning $300, Jones Monument employees in seventh place and winning $200, and Carlee Lamberson in eighth place and winning $100. The Lucky Duck picked was adopted by Justin Higgins and was good for $500. In the Chili Cook-Off Competition, Crossroads took first place, Genesis Family Health took second place and the People's Choice Award, with Senior Care taking home third place. Overall, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rozelle Webb said, the day could not have ended up any better.
“We honestly could not have asked for a better Duck Race Festival. It ended up being a beautiful day weather-wise, there was a nice, big crowd, and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun with the different games and everything else, especially the children. Overall, everything ended up great,” Webb said. “We also had multiple teams for the Corporate Trike Races, and the two winning teams were also participants in the cornhole tournament, which was great, and it was fun watching the other teams participate. The cornhole tournament itself also went really well, they had a lot of participants, which was also awesome to see. Overall, it was a very smooth day, and it was great seeing everyone out and about in the park. I also have to thank the Seward County Community College Saints basketball team come and help load some stuff up after the race was done, and they also helped pick up some trash and other stuff, and they were a great help. We also had the LHS Key Club help out afterward, they were the ones who helped clean and sort and dry all the participating ducks – I can't understate how great of a help they are because if we didn't have them helping, it would take us the rest of the afternoon and part of the evening to do all of that work. Everyone had a great time and seemed to have a lot of fun, we were just really pleased with the day.”
Esparza said he and his family were very excited to hear his name announced as the adoptee of the winning duck.
“I had actually said to my wife 'Let's go for it this year just for fun and let's see what happens.' We actually just got our ducks earlier today, it was about half an hour before the deadline, so it was definitely a last-minute decision,” Esparza said with a laugh. “We didn't even think we would actually win anything, but here we are. It was amazing, and it's just great because again, we went into it with no expectations. It was a really, really big surprise, but we're definitely very excited and very grateful. This was also the very first year we purchased any ducks, it was a last-minute decision to just go for it, and we're really happy with how it turned out.”
However, winning the prize money was not the only positive aspect of the day, Esparza said.
“It was just an overall great day, the weather was awesome, and it was great bringing my children and family out for everything, they had a lot of fun with all the different games and everything else that was going on,” Esparza said. “It was just an overall great day. We'll definitely want to come back, and we'll definitely want to buy ducks again, because now we know our odds of actually winning something. For anyone wondering whether or not they should participate, I would just say to go for it, because your duck very well might be the one that crosses the finish line first. Sometimes we overthink things like this, but this was something we did just for fun, and we're really happy we ended up going for it. Even if it's just one duck, again, you might get lucky and take home that grand prize money. We'll need to talk as a family about what to do with the money, but maybe we'll put it toward a short vacation or something for the near future.”
Both Esparza and Webb said they were pleased with the results of the 2024 edition of the Duck Race Festival.
“My family and I are really excited and really grateful for how the race ended up, and I'm so glad Liberal has events like this for the entire family. We had a great time and I hope everyone comes out next year,” Esparza said.
“We're currently still putting the games and everything else away, so we haven't given next year any semblance of planning quite yet, but we will be meeting later on to talk about this year and how everything ended up. I enjoyed this year a lot, the cookoff and race ended up really well, all of the winners were really excited with the results, which was great,” Webb said. “I want to also extend a thank you to all the businesses that came out and had booths set up in the park, I always like seeing the variety of businesses that help with that. I also want to thank Kim Naab for helping guide the ducks while they were in Ducky Downs, he does a lot of other great work for us, so we're happy to work with him.”
