By VICKI BROWN
The community’s first Citadel Club Duck Race and Cook-off was held Friday evening at the Ivanhoe creek.
The cooking teams served up gumbo, chicken bog, wings, hillbilly tacos, and chicken leg quarters. Purchasing tickets enabled visitors to sample just about everything and eat well.
Some Veterans Victory House residents and staff joined Walterboro Mayor Bill Young in judging the cooking contest.
The third place winner was the Farm Little team, made up of Mary Foster and Todd Cummings; second place winner was the Sumner team, made up of Heather, Jared, Timmy and Donna Sumner; and the winner was the Back Porch team, made up of Paul Pye and the Elks Lodge crew.
“Thank you to all the good folks that bought tickets, cooked, helped set up, helped clean up or just came out to support a great fundraising event,” said event organizer Lee Petrolowitz. “Over $69,000 in scholarships has been paid out in the last six years! Our Colleton County cadets have become military officers, police officers, engineers, lawyers and border agents. I’ve heard that we may even have a doctor in the making,” he added.
Immediately following the cook team awards, 500 ducks were dropped into the Ivanhoe creek.
With no rain lately, the creek was moving slowly, so help was given in the form of the City of Walterboro Fire Departments that released water from their tanks upstream to push the ducks toward the finish line. Each duck purchased is used toward scholarships for students.
The event came to an end with an exciting neck and neck race to the finish line. The first-place duck belonged to Coastal Electric Coop; the second-place duck belonged to Tami Odum; and the third-place duck belonged to Angie Araneo.
All Duck Race winners graciously gave their winnings back to the Citadel Club for scholarships.
