150 brave weather to help ducks

Snow and wind didn’t deter about 150 youngsters from showing up Sunday, Feb. 24, to the 20th Annual Wood Duck House building event at the Knights of Columbus Hall in New Prague.

Sponsored by the Scott-Le Sueur chapter of the Minnesota Waterfowl Association, youngsters were given the opportunity to build wood duck houses to take home and put out in wildlife areas to attract wood ducks for nesting.

“We had about 150 kids show up and build houses,” said Marvin Tietz of Montgomery, who chaired this year’s effort. “That’s down from about 200 last year and more than 300 the year before, but we’ve had bad weather the last two years,” he said. “We’re still enthused by the fact that so many people showed up when the weather was bad.”

Many of the youngsters will have the wood duck houses placed in their rural yards, others will find a place for them in a wildlife habitat.

“We’re excited to see so many young people and their parents come out and build these,” he said.

In addition to the local chapter of the MWA, local sportsmen’ clubs donate money for the project.

“This is a very expensive project, and without them and our other sponsors, this wouldn’t happen,” he said.

Volunteers gathered Wednesday evening to precut the pieces and make sure all the materials would be ready on Sunday morning.

“Between Wednesday and Sunday, we had more than 40 volunteers turnout to help.”

To see more on this story pick up the February 28, 2019 print edition of The New Prague Times.