Havre de Grace Duck Drop To Feature Brighter Lights To Close 2021

HAVRE DE GRACE, MD — An illuminated duck will drop from the Susquehanna Hose Company's ladder truck to ring in the New Year this weekend.

While the duck is the same that has been used in years past, the display may look brighter.

"We went to LED lights this year," Havre de Grace Duck Drop Committee Chair Ed Grainger told Patch.

Every year the fire company uses the same object for the Duck Drop — a duck made of foam.

Local decoy carver Leonard Burcham designed the duck. Once Grainger cut it out of the foam, the carver's son"helped us with the metal frame so we could drop it," he said, and move it up and down on the truck.

"Since 2008 we've had this duck," Grainger said. It has been different colors in past years, "from pink to blue to red," he said.

The foam duck was lit pink for breast cancer in 2012, green for pediatric cancer in 2014, blue for autism in 2015 and red and white to honor a Susquehanna Hose Company fireman killed in the line of duty in 2018.

"The last three [years] we went with this redhead," Grainger told Patch.

The canvasback design is a copy of the original the hose company used in 1999 for the first ever Duck Drop. Canvasbacks are found in the Susquehanna Flats and areas near where the replica will be lowered off Concord Street.

While the redhead duck is the same this year, the numbers above it will be illuminated with LEDs.

"I think it's going to be brighter," Grainger said, adding: "2022 is going to be pretty bright."

Using LEDs on the numbers will require less electricity, generate less heat and create more illumination, according to Grainger.

"Next year I think we’re going to do the whole duck" with LEDs, Grainger said.

The Havre de Grace Duck Drop will begin at 10 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 31, with music from DJ Jeff Thompson. It will be held at Concord Point Park, near the Concord Point Lighthouse in the

The duck will drop at the stroke of midnight, followed by fireworks from a barge. In a shift from original plans, Grainger said the event would be live-streamed on the city's YouTube page.

Road closures will be in effect from 6 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. Saturday on Concord and Lafayette streets.

• Lafayette Street will be closed from Young Street to Concord Street.
• Concord Street will be closed from Lafayette Street to Alliance Street.
• Half of Alliance Street will be reserved for the Susquehanna Hose Company

Parking will be available at the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum and Havre de Grace Maritime Museum lots.

See Also:

• Havre de Grace Duck Drop Ushers In 2021 With Fireworks
• Duck Drop 2021 Planned At Concord Point Park