On a chilly Saturday afternoon, thousands of yellow rubber ducks floated in a fountain at the Woolery Mill. Children donning colorful face paint raced each other on tricycles and played carnival games like ring toss while parents milled about, taking photos and listening to the live music performances.
The Foundation of Monroe County Community Schools and Kiwanis Club of South Central Indiana, nonprofit organizations, hosted their first ever Duck Race Festival on Saturday to raise funds for Monroe County Community School Corporation schools. The rubber duck race consisted of three heats and a final race, with prizes for finalists. The prize for first place was $2,500, with one “lucky duck” getting the chance to win $50,000.
A total of 3,426 rubber ducks were purchased for the festival and placed into the fountain. Organizers used a contraption, created by a STEM group at the Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship, to select ducks at random for the finals.
A certain number of rubber ducks were chosen for each heat and selected to compete in the final race. At the final race, the ducks were pushed forward by a water hose, since there was not a current in the fountain.
Ducks were available for adults to purchase before the event. The purchase of a single duck cost $10 and bought three lunches for kids in need. Purchases of multiple ducks, with prices ranging from $30 for five ducks to $125 for 25 ducks, bought reading materials for MCCSC libraries, playground equipment and STEM lab equipment. The funds will be distributed by the Foundation of Monroe County Community Schools.
“All of our funding is used to support public education in our local schools, so everything that we do goes back into our classrooms through teacher grants or specialized programs that we’re doing to help promote the educational system here,” Cyrilla Helm, executive director of the Foundation of Monroe County Community Schools, said.
Helm said the goal of the Duck Race Festival was to create an event that would not only serve as a fundraiser, but as a free community event open to all.
Along with live performances and carnival games, there was also a booth for students to turn in completed 500 Minute Reading Challenge forms. The reading challenge began in April at MCCSC schools as a way to incentivize students to increase reading. At the festival, students turned in their completed forms to win a free book or rubber duck.
Janet Stake is on the board of the Foundation of Monroe County Community Schools and volunteered to run the 500 Minute Reading Challenge booth.
“We’re going to turn these into the teachers, so the teachers will actually know who did it, and then the school that does the most will also get a prize,” Stake said. “It’s a little competition.”
Stake said the Duck Race Festival was a great community activity.
“It’s just a nice Saturday event, and the kids all seem to really like the ducks,” she said. “We’ve never done this before, this is all brand new, but we’re going to try to make it an annual event, just to raise money for our children and our club.”
At a seat near the reading challenge booth, Mike and Kathy Galimore watched their two grandchildren bounce around the game stations. Mike and Kathy bought two ducks to enter the race. Kathy said if the ducks win, their grandchildren could split the earnings.
“They’re not old enough to participate; we would take the money and probably squirrel it away in a college fund,” Mike said.
Kathy said she was happy to see so many members of the community at the Duck Race Festival, and was glad the first Duck Race was a success.
Dail Jones was the first-place winner of the race and won $2,500. Sonia Mills was the second-place winner and won $500. John Riddle was the third-place winner and won $250. Brian Smith was the fourth-place winner and won free Chick-Fil-A for a year. Bill Baidinger was the fifth-place winner and won $125.
“We had amazing sponsors who stepped forward to make this event happen: Cook Medical, Community Chrysler Dodge Jeep and Ram, Harris Services and Old National Bank,” Helm said. “We also couldn't have done it without Blessinger Entertainment, Cassady Electric, the MCCSC facilities team, and lots of volunteers.”
