Nome celebrates Labor Day

By Megan Gannon
Wet and cloudy conditions on Labor Day did not dampen the spirits of Nomeites who turned out for the annual festivities in town.
Visitors to Nome who disembarked from the cruise ship Scenic Eclipse were eager to see the famous bathtub race and mingled with Nomeites to witness the annual spectacle.
With a 10-second countdown, the Great Labor Day Bathtub Race of 2022 kicked off in front of City Hall at 12 p.m. sharp on Monday. Four tubs were in fierce competition: The Whales, The Tide Pods and Volleyball 1 and Volleyball 2.
Those last two teams were made up of players from the Nome-Beltz girls’ volleyball team. Who drew the short straws to sit in their water-filled tubs?
“Freshmen,” said their coach, Veronica Alviso.
Because of their small stature, The Whales had been given a significant, but apparently unnecessary, head start. Captain June Ventress led her teammates Theodore Ventress, Silas Ventress, Zulu Nichols, Ella Hubert and Joetta Hubert to easy victory.
“Next year the little kids get to start with the big kids because they just smoked them,” said race organizer Patty Burchell, general manager of KICY.
The Tide Pods lost a wheel but came in second. Their team was made up of captain Lowa Joyce and pushers Rob Joyce, Cody Foret, Aiden Jones and Wyat Jones. Despite their athletic prowess, the volleyball team’s two tubs trailed further behind. Volleyball 1, which placed third, consisted of captain Jada Sherman and pushers Ayla Ta, Hana Callahan, Julia Sinnok and Dot Callahan. Volleyball 2 was captained by Sherilyn Anderson leading Aralye Lie, Benny Lie, Brooklynn Crowe and Claire Fagerstrom.
The Whales also won the crowd favorite award and got the prize of one year subscription to The Nome Nugget.
Later that afternoon, the Rotary Club began their 32nd annual Duck Race at the Snake River near the Bering Air terminal.
Wearing a fishing hat to block the light rain, Charlie Lean captained a motorboat from which Nicole Santonastaso and David O’Neill dumped two large totes of rubber ducks into the water at 2 p.m. While winds had doomed races of the past, this year’s ducks got off to a quick start in the swift moving river. A few half-submerged ducks pulled out ahead of the pack, apparently aided by a little extra weight. Most of the ducks crossed the finish line within 30 minutes.
In the days leading up to the race, the Rotary Club was selling duck tickets for $5 a piece, or $20 for five, to raise money for their Nome-Beltz Scholarship Fund. But there was also some prize money for the winners.
The $1,500 first prize went to Sandy Randal, second prize and $750 went to Brent Oesterriter, and Denice Gilroy picked up $500 for third prize and another $250 for the wild duck.
There was little rest for the organizers despite the holiday. When the race was finished, Adam Lust of the Rotary Club looked down at the river full of little ducks that needed to be scooped out: “Now I’ve got to get to work.”