Downtown Duck Derby
A river of 5,000 yellow rubber ducks floated downstream in Nashua, NH, last Saturday.
They weren't bathtub escapees.This was a planned fundraising event.
The 2nd Annual Duck Derby was sponsored by the Nashua Rotary Club. Right on schedule, the yellow flotilla was released dumped into the Nashua River near our mill apt residence. We joined the gathered crowds to cheer on the silent race entrants.
Duck contestants raced floated an estimated 500 feet to a duck barrier near the Main Street bridge. There, duck wranglers snagged the first ducks to reach the finish line. The top three won cash prizes for their adoptees.
Days before the duck derby, volunteers put waterproof numbered tags on the bottom of all 5,000 entrants. The names of those who adopted ducks were entered into a database which had the person's name and number of ducks adopted. Tag
numbers were randomly assigned by computer. According to race officials, this was to ensure that: "no ducks were on steroids and that the race was not fixed."
There was no official announcement of the winning time, and the total race time was under 15 minutes.
Duck adoptees didn't get to keep the winning or losing duck(s). That's because after the derby, all ducks were collected and expected to travel to their next race somewhere in the U.S. Laundry baskets worked quite well for the collection efforts.
Funds raised from the duck derby will go to support various local non-profit organizations and activities. When we lived in VA, this was an annual summer fundraiser sponsored by Eastern Shore Hospice. It's a fun and popular way to raise needed funds. No ducks were injured in the race.
15 comments:
That is so super adorable!!! We do one of those each year at the Regatta here in Pittsburgh! Sooo fun!
I have seen other duck races on other blogs over the past years but this is the first I understood how the race raises funds... interesting read. and glad they reuse the ducks at other races.
Such a fun event! The weather was good for it, too. Those little ducks get to travel the US, how lucky are they?
What fun! I haven't seen a rubber duckie race in ages. Hope they make this an annual event.
That event was, quite obviously, just ducky.
So much fun.
I've seen it done here, but not in several years.
What a fun event! This is the first time I heard of a duck derby. 😊
I never heard of a duck derby but it does look look like a fun day or days.
A fund way to raise funds!
Oh that's really neat! How fun to see all of those yellow ducks!
Oh my goodness - so many little yellow ducks! This looks as though it would be fun to watch.
How fun was that?? And I love that you got to see it happen!
This looks like such a fun event and clever fundraiser!
wow that is quite a fun to join and enjoy Dorothy :)
i bet you had wonderful time cheering up ducks
your captures brilliantly tell the story and involve in the event by viewing them :)
hahaha match fixing sounds like a problem for all species lol
wishing you blessed week ahead my friend :)
Post a Comment