One of downtown’s most visible fundraising events is waddling along on schedule, say organizers.
The Super Duck Race involved hundreds of volunteers and thousands of rubber ducks as a benefit for the American Cancer Society. The “race” starts at noon on Saturday, Feb. 5, when thousands of ducks will be tossed from the Acosta Bridge and ends within an hour when the winning ducks cross under the Main Street Bridge.
The ducks are “purchased” for either $10 or $100. All are numbered and the buyer gets a receipt with his or her duck’s number.
The society hopes to sell 25,000 ducks at $10 each and that winner gets a Honda Accord. There are 2,005 ducks - that’s for the year 2005 - at $100 and the winner there gets a GMC Yukon.
“We have about 30,000 ducks in storage and hundreds of volunteers are getting them cleaned and making sure that each duck can be
identified,” said cancer society spokesperson Lori Ann Whittington.
More volunteers will be on the scene to pick up the ducks.
“It’s amazing how few we lose each year,” said Whittington. “We have some NAS people helping and they really clean up the river.”
Whittington said about half the goal has been reached and that ducks are available at area Belk stores, Coggin dealerships and Bank of America branches.