In 1976, as part of America’s Bicentennial celebration, the town of Westport sponsored “The Great Race”.
Envisioned as a huge party with an environmental twist, The Great Race included several elements. It all started with a run in the city center. Participants then boarded craft – kayaks, canoes, dinghies, catamarans – which they had decorated themselves and traveled from the Post Road Bridge to Cockenoe Island.
There they picked up a trash bag full of trash and traveled up the Saugatuck River to Jesup Green. Onlookers lined the banks, celebrating and cheering them on. Prizes were given out for the fastest time, the most trash and the dumbest boat.
Bands played. A lot of alcohol was consumed. Some teams cheated (filling a full garbage bag in advance). After a few years, boats and alcohol made the event too dangerous for the city to sponsor. The Great Race was no more.
In 1991, the Sunrise Rotary Club of Westport resurrected him. It was a competition where everyone was on deck. There were many details to deal with: finding the right day (with a high tide at noon), hiring groups, organizing stalls at Jesup Green for face painting, water slides and food, and much more.
It took a ton of work. But during his time, the Great Race grossed well over $100,000. Sunrise Rotary donated the funds directly to local and international charities.
In 1999, the club turned to a more traditional fundraiser: a wine tasting. But the memories of The Great Race lingered. Over time, he took on the aura of myth.
In 2008, Sunrise Rotary organized a scaled-down event: The Great Duck Race. This time around 3,000 ducks raced down the river. (Note: they were little rubber duckies.) Each had a number, matching the name of someone who had purchased a $20 ticket. The winner received a $5,000 Visa gift card. There were nine other prizes as well.
The Great Duck Race was a huge event near and on the river downtown, with – again – kids’ activities, vendors and food. (Although not as much beer, of course.) Again, this raised tens of thousands of dollars, which Sunrise Rotary distributed to worthwhile causes.
But the Great Duck Race depended on timing (high tide), wind (one year the ducks were going up rather than down), and luck (no rain). Last spring – after COVID ended two years of live racing – the club moved racing to land. The ducks were now sliding down a water chute on Jesup Green. It’s a softer, more kid-friendly version of previous events, but still a huge fundraiser. Last spring, a crowd of 2,000 people helped raise nearly $70,000 for an array of area nonprofits.
Sunrise Rotary – part of the global organization whose 1.4 million members tackle issues in their communities and around the world – likes to bring families together in a fun way, to raise funds.
But they want the adults to have fun too, without the kids. The annual wine tasting, “Westport Uncorked”, began more than two decades ago and has become the club’s second biggest fundraiser. A sold-out crowd of 400 throngs The Inn at Longshore. This year’s event – the first in three years, post-COVID – will take place from 6:30-9:30 p.m. on November 18.
Cory D’Addario, owner of The Fine Wine Company of Westport, will bring several dozen exciting wines, from seven wineries. It’s a great way for wine lovers to sample new varieties, without buying dozens of bottles. For others, it’s a way to learn more about wine in a friendly setting.
For all, it’s a chance to socialize and sample hearty hors d’oeuvres. Inn at Longshore staff go out of their way to show off their culinary skills.
“Westport Uncorked” is also time-consuming to organize for members of the Sunrise Rotary Club. But, like the Great Duck Race, they see it as a labor of love.
The best part of the event comes afterwards, says President Bruce Paul: deciding which organizations to donate funds to. Sunrise Rotary favors small nonprofit organizations, which may not have the resources to fundraise on their own. They include (among many others) the Susan Fund (providing scholarships for students with cancer), A Better Chance of Westport, CLASP (for people with disabilities), as well as the Cardinal Shehan Center in Bridgeport, the Mercy Learning Center and Homes for the Brave. .
Sunrise is one of two Rotary clubs in Westport. True to its name, it meets at 7:30 a.m. on the first three Fridays of each month, at Green’s Farms Congregational Church. The other – the Westport Rotary Club – is the equally hard-working group that organizes the spectacularly successful LobsterFest (whose proceeds also go to good causes). They meet Tuesdays at noon, also at Green’s Farms Church.
Both Rotary welcome attendance at all events (as well as new members). For more information on Sunrise Rotary’s “Westport Uncorked” wine tasting on November 18, including tickets, go to www.westportsunriserotary.org.
Dan Woog is a writer from Westport. His “Calendar Close-up” column appears every Friday and dives into one of Westport’s upcoming community events. He can be contacted at [email protected]. His personal blog is danwoog06880.com.
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