Monday at 5 PM marked Minden’s fifth annual Duck Derby Extravaganza where local residents gathered downtown on the brick road of Main Street to enjoy a fun-filled evening. The event, hosted by the Greater Minden Chamber and Goex Industries, was an exciting way to help give back to the community.
Stephanie Barnette, president and CEO of the Greater Minden Chamber, was in charge of running the extravaganza and all the evening’s activities.
“The Chamber has a great committee and board of directors who work tirelessly months ahead of time, and so far the crowd is great and we’re really excited,” said Barnette regarding the beginning of the event.
The proceeds from the extravaganza will go to the Greater Minden Chamber to help fund the organization’s community programs.
“The earnings help fund our Christmas events and the Christmas events that go on in Minden, also our 15 under 40 event in the fall and our Quest for Youth Leadership program in the fall. It helps fund everything we do really, so throughout the year we have different community events and have different programs,” said Barnette.
This year was the fifth Duck Derby Extravaganza, and the organization hopes that the event will keep growing.
“Our hope is that the event gets bigger every year. We try to plan a little extra something, and this year we have a lot more children’s events and more things planned,” says Barnette. The evening was filled with numerous activities for families to enjoy, including a children’s parade, a watermelon seed spitting competition, a hula hoop competition, a water balloon toss competition, a “celebrity” food eating competition, the Duck Derby Race, a dance competition, and a firework show to conclude the evening.
The main event, the rubber duck race, had three winners who received cash prizes. Allen Gilbert won first place, receiving the grand prize of $1,000. Jeff Lee won second place and received $500. Linda Ovitt won third place and received $250. The duck race began at 7:35 PM with eight different heats, and from each heat the top ten winning ducks were taken and put into the winners bracket. In order to ensure every duck had a fair chance at winning, the top ducks from each heat raced against each other in a final championship race.
The Duck Derby Extravaganza started off with a children’s parade at 5:45 PM, where children of the community marched down Main Street. The parade was followed by a watermelon seed spitting competition, where kids did their best to spit their seeds further than their opponents. The contest had two champions. The ages ten and up champion was Kleaton Davis. Following the seed spitting contest, the hula hoop contest commenced to see who could hula hoop the longest. The winners were Marley Bogus, Kiara, with Pete and Nia Lee winning in a tied match. Each winner of the children’s contests received a gift certificate to Under Dawgs Sports Grill.
The pie eating competition took place at 7:15 PM where local celebrity contestants went head-to-head to see who could eat the most pies in three minutes. The competing celebrities were Mayor Nick Cox, former Chamber Chairman Greg Lee, Judge Sherb Sentell, Police Chief Jared McIver and Deputy Chief Tokia Harrison. Sherb Sentell was victorious, eating 18 pies in just three minutes. This event was followed by a dance contest which was held prior to the duck race. The evening concluded with Minden’s annual Fourth of July fireworks show.
Multiple local vendors provided food and beverages at the event, including I Don’t Know, A Food Truck; Pork & Fork BBQ; Brick Street Coffee; Kona Ice; and Under Dawgs Sports Grill. Along with these businesses, the Lifeshare bus was present and accepted blood donations. The sponsors and volunteers of the event came together to put on a special evening that not only gave back to the community of Minden, but also brought the city’s residents together for a good time and a good cause.