Candace Wilkerson's little blue duck wins race

With 625 blue, hot pink, lime green, sunshine yellow and royal purple ducks racing down the Kootenai River towards Bonners Ferry, the colors sparkled in the afternoon sun on Saturday.

Despite heavy competition from all the colored ducks, the blue ducks swept the race and claimed the win in all three spots.

The ducks began their journey down river with help from the Freemason "Navy," which included Lon Woodbury, of Bonners Ferry, Larry Bitow, of Hope, David Butt, of Creston BC, and both Russ Newell Jr., and Russ Newell Sr., of Sandpoint.

The 'Navy' also helped to wrangle ducks trying to take detours back into the main flow, as numerous area residents and visitors watched them cross the finish line from the south shore of the river, the bridge and the patio of the Kootenai River Inn.

As the first duck crossed the finish line, the $1,000 first place winner was Candace Wilkerson, with Jessie Soule, who bought her duck for her

eight month-old son won second place and $250, and Paul Merritt came in third for the $100 prize. Wilkerson bought her duck at Boundary Trading Company, Soule bought her son, Sawyer's duck at the Rotary yard sale during the Mother of All Yard Sales, and Merritt, who had some work done at Accurate Collision and bought a duck for each of their customers.

Glenda Poston, County Clerk and Kay Burdick, Chamber Board member, retrieved the winning ducks as well helped to retrieve the remainder of ducks.

The majority of the ducks found their way to the finish line faster than anyone anticipated, however, a search and rescue retriever got mired down in the mud while attempting to recover one of the ducks on his jet ski. He was not injured; the only reported injury last weekend occurred at the fairgrounds when Chamber Treasurer Tina Wilson fell and sprained her ankle as she entered the yard sale arena on Friday. Unfortunately, her efforts to sell ducks was rewarded with an ambulance trip to the hospital. Reports indicate that she will be back on her feet within a few days.

The Chamber of Commerce plans to hold drawings for the other prizes as well as honor the three duck race winners at its next meeting. Sponsors who assisted in making the race a success include Accurate Collision, the Bonners Ferry Military Readiness Group, the Bonners Ferry Masons & Shriners, Boundary Personal Care, Boundary Trading Company, Edward Jones Investments, Donna Foiles, First American Title Co., the Kootenai Tribe, the Log Inn, Larson's, Mountain West Bank, Panhandle State Bank, Wal-Mart, Welco of Idaho, and Woodbury Reports, publisher of the Boundary County Digest and home of ruralnorthwest.com.

Chamber President Jack Douglas, thanked everyone for purchasing the ducks and helping to support the clock tower project for the City of Bonners Ferry.

"The City will receive half of the net proceeds from the race, with the other half going to various chamber projects aimed at drawing more customers into the Boundary County businesses," Douglas said. "The results show just one more reason it pays to shop locally."