Puddle Duck Racer Tradition of Home Made Trophies
The puddle duck class has a tradition that for all of our puddle duck events, everyone brings a homemade trophy and puts it into a pile. The first place winner gets to pick out a trophy first, then the second place etc, all the way to last place.
That trophy is more than just what place you finished in the race -- it becomes a lasting symbol and reminder of the complete journey and effort it took, to get out there that day to have fun with our friends, and how we took the opportunity to live (as opposed to just watching someone else do it).
The importance of it being homemade, is because one of the biggest things we are about, is our participation in our community. A trophy purchased from a store can be purchased by anyone. Not only is a home made trophy unique in that nobody else can get an identical one, but it was made by another ducker, and shared with you, because you are also a ducker.
Sometimes people forget to bring a trophy, they scavenge materials on site to create a trophy right there.
In my house, we have a shelf on the back wall of our dining room that all of our trophies are displayed, and that shelf is visible from the foyer, so anyone walking in the front door will immediately be able to see that we are a family, that lives.
