Sean Mann Is Hand-Making 110 Anniversary Goose Calls for the Waterfowl Festival's 55th Year, at $550 Each

EASTON, MARYLAND — Two-time World Goose Calling Champion Sean Mann and his son, Ian, are making 110 limited-edition Eastern Shoreman goose calls for the Waterfowl Festival's 55th anniversary. The Waterfowl Festival says the money raised will support prizes at the World Waterfowl Calling Championships.

Each call is individually numbered and hand-signed, and costs $550. The Manns are cutting them from a collection of curly maple that Sean and his father, Bill, picked out in 1989, the festival said. For the first time, each call carries both the festival's 55th anniversary logo and the logo of the calling championships.

There is a raffle on top. Call No. 1 will be raffled only among people who buy an anniversary call. Buyers can initially purchase up to two chances per call at $55 each, and 218 chances are available; the seller says chances a buyer does not take may be offered to other buyers. If all the calls and raffle chances sell, the festival expects the effort to add more than $20,000 to the championships' prize fund.

Mann has a long history with the event. He attended the first festival in 1971 as a nine-year-old and later won the World's Championship Goose Calling Contest in 1985 and 1986 with a call he designed and made himself. In 1986 he introduced the first Waterfowl Festival Anniversary Call, for the festival's 15th year, and he has made one about every five years since. The 50th anniversary collection, in 2021, sold out in a few hours.

The Manns are working to have the calls ready for festival weekend, Nov. 13-15 in Easton, and the festival expects all orders to be filled before Christmas. Calls can be bought online at seanmann.com or at Mann's booth at the Sportsman's Pavilion, at the Elks Lodge, during the festival. The World Waterfowl Calling Championships have been part of the festival since 1976, when Easton's Suzie Carpenter helped establish them.