The Estevan Humane Society is pleased with the support shown for its inaugural Duck Derby on Saturday afternoon at Woodlawn Regional Park.
“We had a good turnout, and overall ticket sales were great,” said Estevan Humane Society president Eric Salmers.
A total of 1,158 tickets were sold. The corresponding ticket number was inscribed on the yellow rubber duck, and the first duck to cross the finish line was declared the winner. The owner of the duck, Chris Riese, won $5,790, which represented half of all revenues generated by ticket sales.
The humane society retained the other half for its current and future operations.
A giant rubber duck was raffled off as well. Cindy Romanyk, who is part of the humane society’s executive, was the winner, so she donated it back to the organization, and the duck will be raffled off again next year.
The day started with a fundraising barbecue and a bouncy castle. At 1 p.m., the rubber ducks were loaded into a Bobcat, and dropped into the Souris River from the Highway 47 bridge south of the city. The ducks floated east down the river.
A crowd watched the race from along the river’s banks.
“We didn’t know what to expect, because it was our first try at it, but I was happy with the turnout,” said Salmers. “There were lots of kids … and lots of people.”
There were some concerns on Saturday regarding the river flow, stemming from the breeze out of the east that swept through Estevan that day.
But the race went quicker than Salmers expected.
“I think it was only 10 or 15 minutes for the race itself, and I was expecting longer than that with the direction of the wind,” said Salmers. “There just wasn’t a lot of water flow, but there was enough there to make for a good little race.”
Duck derbies have proven to be popular in other communities. Lumsden has a large one each year. But this was the first one held in Estevan.
“Some people said they hadn’t seen a duck derby in years, and they were excited to see another one,” said Salmers.
Others hadn’t seen one before, so the humane society had to explain the concept.
An event like the Duck Derby, with its ticket sales and the people in attendance, was also a good way to also build awareness of the humane society, he said, and Salmers hopes the organization can build on the momentum generated by the event.
Salmers expects the Duck Derby will be an annual event. He would like to have more prizes and a bigger cash prize next year, and he expects it will only get bigger.
