When her phone rang on the afternoon of Aug. 20, the last thing June Danforth expected to hear was that she just won an eight-foot tall rooster.
Danforth won the Priddis and Millarville’s draw on Aug. 20 winning Reggie the Rooster, a 350 pound, eight foot tall rooster statue.
It was a bit of a surprise for Danforth. She and her husband Owen had admired the rooster during their visits to the Milalrville Farmer’s Market this year, but she never bought a ticket.
“I was floored when they phoned because I had no idea I had a ticket,” she said. “I just about fell over, I said ‘I don’t believe I even have a ticket.’”
Danforth said Owen wanted a ticket for the draw and gave their daughter $20 to buy one. She then bought four, two for June and two for Owen.
Reggie was delivered on Monday morning to the small ranch southwest of Turner Valley the couple has called home for 64 years
The rooster will be proudly displayed at their gate where a small shelter the couple built for their children to use while waiting for the school bus once stood.
“Over the years one time we built a little shack and put it at the gate for the girls to wait for the school bus,” said Danforth. “We wrote on it, the little red school bus house.”
Danforth was at home when the winning ticket was drawn on the afternoon of Aug. 20, capping off the 104th annual fair.
Fair organizers called her and Danforth was given a choice between Reggie, a 1978 Chevy truck and a $2,500 tax receipt.
She chose Reggie.
“My husband wants it and after all, it was his 20 bucks,” she said. “He’ll be 91 next month so I think if he wants the chicken, we’ll have the chicken. [Reggie] will become a part of the heritage we’re leaving our kids here at this little ranch.”
It’s the second year the fair has offered up a distinctive item for grand prize in its raffle. Last year, the draw to win Millie the Tractor became heated with a campaign to “save Millie.” A former foothills resident who is a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force wanted to win the tractor to use it for target practice, the Turner Valley Fire Department wanted it for fire training and CBC TV show heartland wanted to put it on the air. The tractor now greets visitors to the Millarville Racetrack.
Reggie became this year’s big prize after it was donated by volunteer Bill Jackson. He first saw Reggie while driving on Highway 2A near the Pine Coulee south of Calgary and cost him $3,000.
“I saw this big white bird and I said ‘Whoa, I need to know a little bit about this bird and we need him at the fair,’” he said.
Jackson said he has seen a similar rooster at an RV sales lot in Airdrie and one more at an abandoned gas station in Arizona.
Reggie was also the centre of a story and colouring contest. As part of the contest, the rooster was put in place in six different locations around the Foothills in the months leading up to the fair.
Jackson said it was a perfect fit for this year’s draw.
“It relates to agriculture, there’s birds in the show, there have been for a hundred years, so it fit,” he said.
Jackson is happy to see it go to a High Country resident.
Jackson said there were several people and organizations who bought a large number of tickets, including the Alberta Chicken Producers who bought $200 worth of tickets.
The owner of Chicken on the Way in Calgary had hoped Reggie would welcome customers to the popular Calgary restaurant.
Russ Dunn bought 100 tickets for $500 to try to win Reggie for his business.
He was disappointed not to win the draw.
“I was a little bit but it was for charity so it’s not the end of the world,” he said. “They had the chicken and I wanted him, but I didn’t win so that’s okay.”
Dunn said he would’ve put Reggie up at the restaurant on 14 Street northwest in the city, joining another large rooster already located outside the business.
