A St. Albert woman is about to go on a trip of a lifetime after her bird placed first in the city’s first annual duck race.
Sharon Brownlee was declared the winner of the Wetlands and Wildlife Day Duck Race on Aug. 28 after her plastic duck crossed the finish dam stretched across the Sturgeon River. The race was a fundraiser for Ducks Unlimited and was held as part of the city’s 150th anniversary picnic. For winning, she will receive a $5,700 adventure travel getaway to the place of her choice.
The race was a great success, says organizer Erin Jenness, with some $5,000 raised for wetlands preservation in Alberta. “The turnout was really great for the race itself,” she adds, with a decent sized crowd of onlookers observing from the shore.
The race started at about 4:37 p.m. After a short countdown, a team of green-shirted volunteers dumped about 500 plastic ducks off the Children’s Bridge into the Sturgeon.
The birds soon took on a flying V formation, some floating upright, others on their sides or facing backward, all egged on by cheers and the occasional duck call from the crowd. Many stalled out by St. Albert Place despite the encouragement.
The first ducks hit the finish dam by Chateau Mission Court about 12 minutes later, but because none of them passed through the victory tunnel in its centre, none of them won. After a tense two minutes, the crowd erupted in cheers as duck No. M06189 sailed straight into the tunnel, where it got stuck. It was then unceremoniously plucked from the water and declared the winner.
Brownlee says she wishes she had been there to see it happen. She says she entered the contest because it supported a good cause. “I think Big Lake needs looking after, and the fact that Ducks Unlimited is taking an interest in it is marvellous.”
Visit stalbertgazette.com for video of the race start and the rest of the picnic.
St. Albert’s green bins have kept almost 700 tonnes of trash out of the Roseridge landfill, according to officials.
Landfill manager Susan Berry said St. Albert has sent about 2,811 tonnes of compostable material to Roseridge since the start of June — about half of what the city would normally send in an entire year.
That helped keep about 675 tonnes more stuff out of the landfill during June and July compared to those same two months in 2010, says Christian Benson, St. Albert’s solid waste program co-ordinator. Stats for August were not yet available.
If this keeps up, the city should be on track to hit its goal of diverting 65 per cent of its waste from the landfill.
The compost is currently being dropped onto the existing piles at Roseridge until an indoor composter can be built. That construction should start this fall.
