By Sue Moore
Kids can have lots of excitement watching their rubber ducky float down the waterway in Clark Park during the Old Car Festival each year. It’s especially enticing because there are prizes awarded to the winning duck owner, sponsored by the Vicksburg Community Schools Foundation.
The first heat jets off at 12 p.m. with several more to follow because there are hundreds of tickets sold throughout the school and to the public. The tickets are $5 bucks each and can be purchased from the Foundation’s booth on Prairie Street on Saturday before the race. It’s a fundraiser for the School Foundation and yet provides plenty of thrills as the rubber ducks represent one ticket sold, getting caught up in the weeds along the way or a curve in the creek that winds through Clark Park.
It’s also a cooling respite during a day of walking through the downtown lined with cars as they bake in the hot sun. A contest is held annually at each elementary school for the classroom that sells the most tickets because the winner gets an additional treat of an ice cream day just before school gets out in June.
This year the Foundation awarded $33,000 in scholarships to deserving seniors in the class of 2018. It also supports curiosity grants to students in the classroom throughout the school year. It awards $10,000 in Bardeen grants to teachers for instructional experiences that would not ordinarily be paid for by the school system.