2018 River Rest Kicks Off Saturday

NEW ALBANY, Miss. (WCBI) – New Albany honored some very special people Saturday. This monument stands in front the New Albany’s Welcome Center to honor the National Guard members from New Albany and Union County. Members who took part in the 2005 deployment in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

During this weekend’s festivities at the Tallahatchie River Festival, more than a dozen of the men were recognized for their service and presented with a certificate and special knives from W.R. Case and Sons Cutlery Company.

“We’re doing that today to honor them to let them know that we still support them even though many of them have already retired like myself. And one of those veterans has already been deployed again into Kuwait. These are men and women that believe in protecting the freedoms of America,” said President of North Mississippi Knife Collectors Shelby Lowery.

There were plenty of other things going on at this year’s event including the knife show that corresponded with the honoring of the veterans. There was a hoop-fest right in the middle of the street and there was music.

The Tallahatchie River Festival has become the premier event on the New Albany calendar on the last weekend in September.

“This really started out as the celebration of Faulkner’s birthday, and then it morphed into the Tallahatchie Riverfest. So it’s just the one year event that our citizens and the outside of New Albany can come and a half an eventful day,”said Director Of Community Development Billye Jean Stroud.

There was a good crowd gathered at midday along the walking bridge over the river to witness what has become a popular part of the whole River Fest experience. The 5th Annual Duck Regatta, sponsored by the New Albany Rotary Club more than 1300 rubber ducks were dropped into the water, off the bridge, up the river, and slowly worked their way to the walking bridge where they were retrieved.

“The Rotary Club was looking a fundraiser idea 5 years ago, and we came up with the idea to do a duck regatta. We sell tickets for $10 a duck. This year we’ve sold 1,332 ducks to be in the race this year. The first 3 places win cash prizes, and then there are 4 pluck ducks that we pick out randomly are $50 prizes. It’s a fundraiser for the New Albany Rotary Club, and we’re partners with the Union County Heritage Museum,” said New Albany Rotary Club member Will Tucker.

The Rotary Club wanted to make sure they had all of their ducks in a row.

The music and fun lasted until about 10:30pm Saturday.