Thank you, thank you, thank you....downtown Knoxville merchants, media sponsors, and patrons!

It's not easy starting a new week-long event around a 2-minute sporting event, the Kentucky Derby. Derby Deal passes and an absolutely free Superfecta contest added to the fun of the week's family and grown-up events as well.

Our DDW committee, led by Shelia Watson and Lisa Taylor Brown, did a great job! Jimmy Buckner rallied all of the 20 various radio, print, tv, and on-line media sponsors! Over two dozen downtown Knoxville merchants, from many restaurants to clothing shoppes to hotels to a professional photographer, offered hundreds of dollars in collective savings through the past week...all for only $10.

From the family fun on Sunday to the Cornhole Tourney on Wednesday (thanks to the Knoxville Ice Bears, ORNLFCU's "Young and Free" campaign, and WUTK) to the Best Hat and Best Dressed contests on Saturday...with many a party in-between...this first annual Downtown Derby Week was a great success.

With 51 weeks of planning, preparation, and execution ahead of us, we have no doubt that next years DDW will double to triple in participation and fun in 2012! By the way, all fun had also raises awareness and interest in DDW's greatest benefactor, the Scarecrow Foundation...which will end hunger in America, as we know it, over the years to come!