-
(ARCHIVE PHOTO | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The Rotary Club of Graham’s seventh annual Duck Derby will be held from 2-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 at Firemen’s Park. -
(ARCHIVE PHOTO | THE GRAHAM LEADER) A canoe race at Firemen's Park as part of the Rotary Club of Graham's Duck Derby event. The canoe race will return this year at the park and feature third-party duck sales participants.
Ten thousand ducks will soon travel down the Firemen’s Park pond to Salt Creek during the Rotary Club of Graham’s seventh annual Duck Derby.
The event will be held from 2-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 at Firemen’s Park, with duck sales open online at duckrace.com/graham.
As of Monday, Oct. 7, the derby had sold 2,101 rubber ducks, or 21% of its 10,000 goal. Ducks are sold online for one for $5, five for $25, 12 for $60 and 20 for $100.
A total of 10,000 rubber ducks will be dumped and raced in Firemen’s Park, with a first place grand prize of $5,000, a second place prize of $500, a third place prize of $100 and a $250 prize for dead duck last.
The duck parade, launch and race will occur at 4 p.m. and the winners will be announced at 6 p.m. Rotary Club of Graham President Tanner Swaringen said in a previous interview that the event serves as the primary fundraiser for the Rotary Club.
“All the money that we raise from Duck Derby stays in Graham. We support everything from Backpack Buddies to Our Daily Bread is another big one that we support. We also do the Goodfellows Angel Tree, and then just lots of nonprofits around town we give to them,” he said. “We see people in need and donate to worthy projects. But this is our number one thing, this is where we get our money from, so it’s important that this is successful.”
The duck derby has third-party sales which provide a portion of all duck sales back to the various organizations which sell them.
“Not only is it a fundraiser for Rotary with that, those third-party sales also go back to (for example) GISD, they also get a cut of those. So this is an opportunity for us to access more people, more duck sales, but also directly just give back to them as well,” Swaringen said.
Third-party participants this year include Crestview Elementary School, Graham High School Cheer/Blue Crew, Key Club, Pioneer Elementary School, Graham Sport Authority teams, Humane Society of Young County, Open Door Christian School, Our Daily Bread, Texoma Jiu-Jitsu and Young County Toys for Tots. When making a donation online, a team can also be selected.
Returning this year, third-party participants will choose a representative for a canoe race in the Firemen’s Park duck pond.
The Rotary president said the event is a massive undertaking for the club which has its members come out in full force.
“We have lots of Rotarians that have a hard time making our weekly lunch, but we see them here, or we have (some) that are there at lunch every single week and they’re also doing this too. A big chunk of our club all pitches in,” Swaringen said. “It doesn’t work without the entire club pitching in. We’ve got a handful that carry the load and then it’s just manpower after that.”
