2nd Annual Macon Waves Ducky Derby

The 2nd Annual Macon Waves Ducky Derby was held on Saturday August 24th.  The Franklin Young Professionals had been working hard these past few months preparing for the event and selling tickets for the event.  The ducks went into the river at 2:00 pm.  The duck race was a bit more exciting this year than last.  The river was flowing a bit faster and the ducks were much more spread out in the river.  It was exciting to watch the first lucky duck cross the finish line.  Congrats to all of our lucky winners! 

Start of the Ducky Derby!

We were able to raise well over $2,000 with the event this year.  All of the proceeds from the event will be going to support our FYP Scholar Award and a portion will also go to the Greenway.  We will giving out two $1,000 scholarships again this upcoming spring. 

Ducks in the River

We would like to thank all of our individuals and local businesses that sponsored our event!  This event would not have been possible without you and we are proud to be able to hand out the FYP Scholar Award again this year to two deserving local high schoolers.  Thank you to everyone who participated and helped the day of the event.  We would also like to thank everyone who purchased ducks to race! 

Approaching the Finish Line

Cleaning them up from the River

Announcing the 2nd Annual Macon Waves Ducky Derby!

We are at it again!  Announcing the SECOND Annual Macon Waves Ducky Derby.  This event will be held August 24th at Big Bear Park in Franklin.  We are hoping to reach and exceed our proceeds from last year's event.  Our goal is to continue the FYP Scholar Award scholarship fund for years to come and to continue to help support or local community.  There are plenty of opportunities for local individuals and local businesses to help get involved.  We are also partnering again with the NC Big Sweep and will be asking for volunteers to help with the river clean-up as well.  Please see any FYP member for details or to purchase your duck tickets!

Please help spread the word about this event.  If you are interested in donating, sponsoring a duck or flock of ducks, or if you would like to help volunteer please contact us at fyp28734@gmail.com or talk to any FYP member in the community.  Hope to see you there!

Congratulations to the Winners of the FYP Scholar Award 2013

We would like to announce the winners of the FYP Scholar Award.  This is the first year we have offered this scholarship and we are very excited.  The requirements of the award were strictly merit based and we received a number of great applications, so the final decision was tough!  We have awarded one male and one female recipient, who will each be receiving $1,000 towards their college education.  Carrie Doster & Caledin Wylupek were this year's award recipients.  Our president, Mandy Lail presented the awards at the FHS Scholarship Night, which was held May 2, 2013. 

President Mandy Lail Speaks at the Awards Banquet

Carrie Doster accepting her award

Caledin Wylupek accepting his award

Congratulations to Carrie Doster & Caledin Wylupek!  We wish you all the best and look forward to hearing where this scholarship award helps take you in your future!

Announcing the New Board of Directors

Announcing our new Board of Directors for the 2013-2014 Corporate Year!  The new Board took office April 1st, 2013.  We are very excited to have some of the previous members stay on board, but also look forward to the new faces and new energy brought to the board this year.  If you see them around please congratulate them!

President - Mandy Lail

Vice President - Kelly Rogers, DVM

Secretary - Kelly Davenport

Treasurer - Johnathan Dean

Member at Large - Laura Tallent 

Membership Chair - Bethany Ledford

Membership Co-Chair/Events Chair - Ashley "Freebird" Freeman

Marketing & PR - Mallory Barbee

Community Outreach - Shaina Adkins 

Annual Meeting 2013

The Franklin Young Professionals had our Annual Meeting on March 5th, 2013 at The Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub in downtown Franklin.  Special thanks to the Rathskeller for being awesome hosts and for the goodies they supplied.  We had food catered from Frogtown Market and amazing desserts made by Pattycakes Bakery. 

Frogtown Market, Pattycakes & Rathskeller provided food & desserts

Annual Meeting 2013

Our Annual Meeting was a time to reflect back on the previous corporate year and to look forward to the upcoming year.  President Mandy Lail reflected on both our strong past and helped prepare us for the year ahead of us.  We had a fun slideshow of pictures from the past year.  Some highlights of this past year were our monthly socials, the Adopt-A-Highway road clean-ups, helping out with the Franklin Folk Festival and Mountain High BBQ Festival, as well as continued support for the Macon County Care Network Weekend Backpack Program.  Our most exciting achievement was our first annual Macon Waves Ducky Derby, which was the first big event FYP hosted here in Franklin.  The Ducky Derby was held in conjunction with the NC Big Sweep event down on the Little Tennessee River.  Our Ducky Derby raised over $4000 and has helped us start up a new scholarship for local high school students, called the FYP Scholar Award.  We have chosen a very well-deserved boy and girl who will each be receiving a $1000 scholarship this spring.  We will be announcing the names of winners very soon so be on the lookout!  This was a huge deal for us and we hope that will be able to provide this scholarship for years to come.

Annual Meeting 2013

President Mandy Lail saying a few words

Our new Board of Directors for 2013-2014 was also announced.  We have a number of board members that will be continuing to serve, some of them in new and different positions, but we also have a few new faces!  We are very excited about the energy and enthusiasm our new board has and we look forward to a great new year.   

Looking forward to a great new year!

Cold For A Cause 2013

The Franklin Young Professionals were on hand to help out with this year's Cold For A Cause.  Every year in January Patrick Jenkins of Farm Bureau gets hoisted up on a crane in the cold to help raise donations for charity and to bring about an awareness of needy families in our area.  The Young Professionals helped promote the event and bring about local awareness of the cause.  We also helped out on Saturday January 19th collecting donations and putting them into the trucks.  We do not yet have the final tally, but the trucks were filling up all weekend long.  We collected items such as coats, winter clothes, hats, scarfs, gloves, canned goods and non-perishable food items, blankets, etc.  The charitable donations will be taken to CareNet of Macon County.  

FYP Members loading up the trucks

Patrick up in the bucket, braving the cold!

The Franklin Young Professionals lend a hand

This is the second year we participated in this event and we are planning to help support the event in the future.  We have also been working hard every few months cleaning up along our Adopt-A-Highway stretch of road on Porter Street.  We are also looking forward to hearing from the first of the applicants of the Franklin Scholar award, which is being offered for the first time this spring to a well-deserving high school senior of Franklin.  Check back frequently to see what we are up to and where you might find us helping out around Macon County!