Five…four…three…two…ONE!!!
And as the duck drops in Havre de Grace again this year, and the clock strikes midnight at the end of Dec. 31, the sky will light up with fireworks to ring in the new year.
Havre de Grace began the Duck Drop and fireworks in 1999 to celebrate the arrival of the new millennium, and the tradition has continued. One year, the fireworks were canceled because the recreation committee didn't have enough money and another year the duck didn't drop because the fire company's ladder truck was out of service, so the duck was lit atop the J.M. Huber building.
The New Year's Eve spectacular is sponsored by the City of Havre de Grace, the Havre de Grace Parks and Recreation Committee and the Susquehanna Hose Company, which took over the duck drop portion six years ago.
The year after the duck was placed on the Huber tower, it came thisclose to being eliminated from the new year's celebration. The week before the new year celebration, local residents saw a letter in The Record that the drop was canceled, and it got them really upset, Ed Grainger, of the Susquehanna Hose Company, said.
"The fireworks were still planned, but a lot of people said it wasn't the same without the duck," he said. "It just hit me, we have to do this."
So Grainger, who has been spearheading the Duck Drop since, and other fire company members rallied together to find the duck, which was in pieces and still on top of the Huber tower, put it back together, got the lights working and rigged it from the company's tower truck in time for New Year's Eve.
The following year, the entire duck was rebuilt, from the design to the Mylar paper to the lights.
"The duck was in pretty bad shape. We tried to restore it, but it came to an end," Grainger said.
Leonard Burcham, a local decoy carver, provided the new duck design, and his son, Tim, helped with building the framework and rigging it to the ladder truck.
The duck was rebuilt again to ring in 2011, and was covered with red, white and blue lights. It will likely be the same this year, with 370 lights on the duck and another 300 over the numbers of the year.
Burcham and four or five other hose company members have been helping with the drop since the fire company took it over. They have a motto printed on their sweatshirts this year: "In Havre de Grace, the duck drops here."
"New Year's Eve is tough to get people to volunteer their services, but this is our New Year's Eve," Grainger said.
Keeping the tradition is important to Grainger, a fourth-generation firefighter.
"I was born a volunteer. I enjoy doing things for this city," he said. "Everybody thinks we just fight fires, but we're always helping out somebody, somewhere. Any time I'm asked to do something, I never say no."
He's excited for New Year's Eve this year, just like every year.
"It's a very proud feeling when you do a thing like this," he said. "I get excited after the fireworks go off. It's for the community, it makes the community happy, it makes the kids happy, and we're happy to do it."
This week, fire company volunteers have been getting the numbers ready, prepping the carved decoy and getting the rigging ready, Chief Scott Hurst, of the Susquehanna Hose Company, said.
Hurst says he has watched the Duck Drop and fireworks every year from Fire House 4 on Revolution Street.
"It's amazing to watch all the cars parked...there are hundreds if not thousands of people who watch this every year," he said. "It seems like more and more every year."
As the countdown to midnight begins, the duck begins to drop, though it's sometimes on "Havre de Grace time," Carolyn Narvell, of the Havre de Grace Recreation Committee, said.
Once it falls, the fireworks, put on by Fireworks Extravaganza, light up the night.
The $5,500 display is paid for by the City of Havre de Grace as a gift to the citizens, Narvell said, who added the fireworks last 15 to 20 minutes and will be their "bright, beautiful self."
She said it's a very faithful crowd that watches the fireworks every year, and one group comes with its own duck calls, "which is cool to hear."
Like the fire company, the recreation committee intends to do the fireworks every year.
"We think it's important because we like to make Havre de Grace special," Narvell said. "Havre de Grace is a really close-knit community where we have a lot of wonderful volunteers, like the firemen, who give up their New Year's Eve to do the duck, which represents Havre de Grace. Besides that, it's just plain fun."