Rubber duck ‘Trish’ sends couple to Portugal

Posted 10/11/18

By Jen Costa

Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary

WESTPORT — This year’s Duck Derby winner honors the memory of one of the sanctuary’s dear friends and dedicated volunteers, Elaine Seguer.  …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Rubber duck ‘Trish’ sends couple to Portugal

Posted

By Jen Costa

Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary

WESTPORT — This year’s Duck Derby winner honors the memory of one of the sanctuary’s dear friends and dedicated volunteers, Elaine Seguer.  Patricia Vasconcellos entered the Duck Derby as a part of her entry in the Annual Elaine Seguer Ladies Invitational golf event at the Allendale Country Club, which celebrates the life and passions of Elaine who passed in 2015.  Elaine was a true champion of nature, wildlife and in particular, Mass Audubon’s Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary.

 Patricia said she enjoyed the golf event and didn’t really think about her Duck Derby entry after that – until she got the call from Sanctuary Director, Gina Purtell, letting her know that Trish did her well – taking first place and presenting her owner with the monumental task of deciding where to travel with her grand prize of two round trip tickets, two nights of lodging and a free dinner, anywhere in the world.

In this, the event’s 15th year, this will be the first trip to Portugal.  Previous destinations include Hawaii, India, Aruba, Zambia, New Zealand, Tanzania, China, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, France and Ecuador. 

On choosing her destination, Patricia and her husband Ron said,  “When we started to listen to the call on our answering machine, we initially thought it was a marketing call for a condo or something.  When we realized it was a real call and that I had won the Duck Derby, we were thrilled!  We are excited to explore our family history in Portugal and are looking forward to the trip.”

Those who would like a similar choice are alerted to the 16th Annual Allens Pond Duck Derby, which will be held on Saturday and Sunday August 10-11, 2019.  Visit www.massaudubon.org/allenspond and adopt your ducks anytime.  Ducks make great gifts too – and all of the duck income goes straight to support the sanctuary, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and donors.

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.