Oatka Festival

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Chapter 193 of the Vietnam Veterans of America sponsored the 25th annual Duck Derby in Le Roy today, with an assist from the Le Roy Volunteer Fire Department.

Luke Gottsi won. Rich Noble, second, and Jerry Castantino, third.

Big crowd and lots of great community spirit were on display Saturday during the annual Oatka Festival Parade, followed by fun and games at the festival in Trigon Park.

The biggest cheers of the parade went up when the Class of 1984 came through and the announcers said among the things the class supports is saving Frost Ridge, and then again when the Save Frost Ridge group itself came through the parade (above).

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Here are the final, official Le Roy Duck Derby results, sponsored by Chapter 193 of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

1. Miley Stalica – Bergen, $500
2. Paul Senger -- $100
3. Nicole Kochmanski -- $50
4. Bob Dash – Byron, 2 raft rides on the Salmon River, Pulaski from Adventure Calls Outfitters, Le Roy
5. Pete Lang – Le Roy, 1 family membership to Seneca Park Zoo
6. R. Puleo – Batavia, 2 complimentary visits to Le Roy Chiropractic
7. Devon Sczudlo – LeRoy, 1 free detail service from Castilone Chrysler/Dodge/ Jeep in Batavia
8. David Zinni – Batavia, $50 gift card from “Park Avenue Pub and Restaurant,” Rochester
9. Colin Graham – Le Roy, 2 complimentary day passes to Darien Lake
10. Ken Sovocool – Batavia, 1 Family Fun Pack to the Rochester Museum & Science Center
11. Dan Murphy – Henrietta, 2 rounds of golf at “The Club on Silver Lake”
12. Korey Wallace – Stafford, 2 rounds of miniature golf at Terry Hills Golf Course in Batavia
13. Mary Humphry – Le Roy, 2 rounds of miniature golf at Terry Hills Golf Course in Batavia
14. Laura Carli – Le Roy, 2 rounds of miniature golf at Terry Hills Golf Course in Batavia
15. Hunter Russell – Le Roy, 2 rounds of miniature golf at Terry Hills Golf Course in Batavia
16. Ray Mancuso – Le Roy, 2 complimentary tickets for 2 adults on the steamship “The Maid of the Mist" in Niagara Falls
17. Jamie Carli – Le Roy, 1 family pass for 2 adults and 3 children at the N.Y. Museum of Transportation
18. Giacovelli – 2 courtesy day passes at the Genesee Country Museum
19. Tom Boss – Warsaw, 1 Buffalo/Sabres Yearbook Autographed by #21 Drew Stafford
20. Chad Corant – Le Roy, laser signed photos of Buffalo Bills # 28 C.J.
    Spiller and #99 Marcell Darius
21. Rick Scott – Le Roy, autographed photo of Kyle Gibson of the Rochester Red Wings
22. Bryan Osborne – Le Roy, $20 gift card for City Slickers Bar & Grill in Batavia
23. Jim Murphy – Le Roy, $15 gift certificate for the POK-A-DOT restaurant in Batavia
24. Molly O’Geen – Le Roy, 1 medium pizza, chesse and 1 topping at Big Paulie's Pizza in Batavia
25. Dave Tyler – Le Roy, 1 medium pizza, cheese and 1 topping at Big Paulie's Pizza in Batavia
26. Dave Watson – 2 paperback books from Present Tense books and gifts in Batavia
27. Sawyer McNish – Le Roy, for the last place duck, a $10 gift certificate for Applebee's restaurant and $10 cash

Jack Mayer, of Le Roy, gets his hand waxed by Lisa McCombs, owner of Wax Hands by Unique Creations, during the second day of the Oatka Festival on Sunday.

Tom McQuaig creates an airbrushed T-shirt.

Preparation for the annual Duck Derby across Oatka Creek. 

Duck racing fans.

The winner selected. We don't have information yet on who won.

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Photos from Saturday's Oatka Festival Parade.

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Saturday was a perfect day for a parade in one of the region's best venues for marching bands and floats, the Village of Le Roy.

Here are photos from yesterday's 2012 Oatka Festival Parade.

The festival continues today until 6 p.m.  The annual duck derby race is at 5 p.m.

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Le Roy's perhaps biggest annual event opens today and runs through tomorrow.

It's time again for the Oatka Festival.

The festival is celebrating its 24th year. Since its start in 1989, it has become a community event that fuses fun, food, and entertainment with a friendly, family, small-town feel.

The festival site opens 10 a.m. each day, but the true kick-off is at 11 a.m. on Saturday with the highly anticipated annual parade.

Other activities include an arts and craft show, Back Yard Circus, live entertainment, musical talents such as The Good Knights and KnightnGals, fishing and duck derbies, 50/50 raffle, a library book sale, bounce house, rock wall, and more.

In addition to the festival events, the community comes alive with many other activities. A triathlon, 30K bike race, and a 5K walk/run will fill early morning hours both days.

Le Roy Farm Market will be on Saturday at Wolcott Street with a variety of healthy foods available for purchase.

The Le Roy House and Jell-O Gallery will be open for visitors throughout the weekend with free tours and a chance to try a Jell-O Poke Cake made by Scratch Bakery.

Also, the community uses the popularity of the festival as an opportunity to raise awareness for their organizations. Some groups specially design floats for the parade, and others hold various fundraisers to support their cause.

The Le Roy Nursery School, celebrating 50 years, is one such group who has a yearly yard sale to fund the school.

 "Le Roy Nursery School has a long history of educating children in Genesee County, and we depend on our fundraisers like the Oatka Festival Yard Sale to keep the school going throughout the year," said Heidi Dominiak, treasurer for the school year 2012-2013.

Household and children’s items, small furniture, and sports trading cards are some of things found at this year's sale. All funds raised go directly back into the school.

The sale will be from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday at 5 E. Main St., next to the First Baptist Church. More information can be found at www.leroynurseryschool.com.

Another organization, the Knights of Columbus, is hosting an all-you-can-eat breakfast from 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday, July 15. All money raised will benefit local charities.

This year is also Le Roy's Bicentennial. The town's quilt will be available for those who want to be one of 200 to take part in painting a square for it.

More information about the festival can be found at oatkafestival.org.

It was a beautiful day for a parade and festival in Le Roy on Saturday, and the entire parade route was jammed with people and the festival grounds were grounded.

Those who attended were treated to some real community spirit, great music, fantastic food and lots of fun.

UPDATE: I'm experimenting with an application that allows me to publish slide shows of photos. I'm hoping it will both be easier than my current message and improve the viewing experience. Below, you should see what looks like a video player. You can click through the photos individually, or on the lower right there's a button to open the slide show in full-screen mode, allowing you can see larger versions of the photos (which is part of my goal). I'm curious how this works for people.

Another summer weekend, another parade in Genesee County. This one in the photogenic setting of the Village of Le Roy for the Oatka Festival.

More pictures after the jump:

I stopped by the Oatka Festival in Le Roy briefly yesterday.  It was a great crowd and everybody seemed to be having a great time. The weather was prefect.

Thanks to Russ Stresing for getting us this footage of the Oatka Festival Parade.

Not much Batavia news on the front page of today's Daily News that wasn't already featured on The Batavian. In fact, both Batavia stories — one about GCC's $4 million capital project and the other about LeRoy's Oatka Festival — were on our site this morning and yesterday, respectively. (Check out the link on the right to the Buffalo News coverage of the Legislature meeting for more details.)

Inside, the Youth Page features a pair of articles on summer parks programs run by the Batavia Youth Bureau: the 2008 Batavia Summer Youth Program, which features weekly tennis activities. Call (585) 345-6420 for more information.

Tom Rivers has a nice column on today's opinion page about a local man's ties to an Olympic coach, and the wonders of the pole vault.

As always, we encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstands — Main Street Coffee has some, plus they have coffee. Or, better yet, visit BataviaNews.com and subscribe.

So... the whole back page of the A-section in today's Daily News is devoted to coverage of two out-of-town festivals happening this weekend: a Taste of Buffalo and the Sterling Renaissance Fest. Both are fine guarantees of a good time, I'm sure. I know I plan to head down to Sterling later this summer. Probably for the Pirate Revel. Argh!

But we're here to say that you don't have to go that far.

LeRoy, everybody's favorite world capital of Jell-O, will be hosting its annual Oatka Festival this Saturday and Sunday. Buffalo and Sterling are both Thruway stops away. heck, you can almost throw a stone from Batavia and hit LeRoy.

LeRoy's Oatka Festival, held on the banks of the lovely Oatka Creek, began in 1989. Its organizers did all they could to ensure the event would be "an old fashioned community gathering" — and they've kept it that way ever since.

You could say the festivities kick off at 11:00am Saturday with a parade down Main Street in LeRoy. That same day, you can expect no less than a backyard family circus, a chicken barbecue, brass bands and "cookie song writing for kids" — not sure what that means but it sounds fun.

And that's just Saturday.

Sunday will keep the music going — including a high school talent show under the tent. For the readers out there, the Woodward Memorial Library will continue its used book sale throughout the weekend. Then, of course, there are the crafts, the food, the 5K Walk/Run and the Vietnam Veteran's Duck Derby.

Click here to download the full schedule of events as it was printed in the LeRoy Pennysaver, or check it out on the Web site.