Frog jump a success at new location

The frog jump winners and the length their frogs jumped (in three jumps) were:
• Age 6 and over, first - Austin Kirby, 14 feet, 2 inches; second - Alex Mundle, 14 feet; and third - Caleb Allen, 13 feet, 6 inches.
• Age 5 and under, first - Camrin Lake, 14 feet, 1 inch; second - Kendal Locke, 12 feet, 10 inches; and third - Claire Elliott, 12 feet, 2 inches.
This year the frog jump was at its new location near Clemens Field, along with many other National Tom Sawyer Days events, and the sponsoring club was glad it did not have to be moved at the last minute, like last year when Nipper Park was closed by high water in the Mississippi River.
With 154 children age 5 and under jumping their frogs, along with 177 age 6 and over, the contest had more than average children competing, according to Linda Carr, frog jump chairperson with the sponsoring Centennial Circle of Kings Daughters.
“I was pleased with the turnout, considering we didn’t even know where we were going to be when we got down there,” Carr said of the new Clemens Field location. “We average about 250 to 300.”
The club was been sponsoring it for many years, she added. “This is our biggest fund-raiser our club does. We make the money off the T-shirts and registrations, and we couldn’t do it without our sponsors that help us every year.”
Boy Scout Troop 100 of Hannibal has also been involved for several years. It rents frogs for $2 to the children who arrive without one. The Scouts also help during the frog jump, assisting children whose frogs do not want to jump.
Kathi Lehmann and Sheila Frieling were helping with the frog rentals and explained the boys catch the frogs and later return them to their natural habitat.
Shawn Lehmann, Kathi’s son, had spent two hours catching frogs. He and the other Scouts find them at night at the American Legion Golf Course, Bear Creek and Huckleberry Park. “When you hear them, it’s hard to find them,” he said. “We take flashlights and shine them in their eyes, and they freeze.”
One girl competing in the frog jump for the first time was Bailey Cook, 9, of Hannibal. When she took her frog out of its cooler to display it, it slipped out of her hand and tried to escape capture but was soon recaught. She had held smaller frogs in the past, Bailey said, but never one this big. “Dad found it in a pond.”
She is the daughter of Christina and Jody Cook, and her family group included her 10-year-old sister, Taylor, who had competed in the Tomboy Sawyer contest earlier Friday, and her brother, Jackson, 10 months. Christina explained the family always goes to Tom Sawyer Days events, especially the fireworks. because the Fourth of July is her mother, Dorothy Watkins,’ birthday.