PORT ANGELES — A half-dozen community groups in Clallam County have received about 16 percent of all 2014 Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby proceeds, contrary to Olympic Medical Center Foundation Executive Director Bruce Skinner’s statement last spring that the hospital receives all the money from this fundraiser.
Skinner recently revised his statement, which appeared in May in the Peninsula Daily News and in the Sequim Gazette weekly newspaper.
Skinner had lauded the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe for agreeing to sponsor the Duck Race and other events.
“Because of the tribe’s and other sponsorships, we are able to give 100 percent of monies that are donated to us at our events to Olympic Medical Center,” Skinner had said.
Correcting that statement, Skinner told the PDN: “I should have said 100 percent of all ducks purchased from hospital foundation volunteers, to be entirely clear,” go to OMC, Skinner said.
“Most people understand that, but I should have put that in there anyway.”
He said about $24,000 of the total $150,000 raised benefited Rotary Club of Sequim, Soroptimist International of the Olympic Rain Forest in Forks, the Port Angeles High School health occupations class administered by the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, and the Juan de Fuca Scenic Byway Association and the Port Angeles Lions Club.
Members of all those groups, except the Boys & Girls Club, sold the ducks, he added.
The remaining $126,000 raised is not all actual donations — it includes about $83,000 in sponsorships “which more than covers total expenses and overhead,” Skinner said.
“The ballpark figure [after expenses] is that $75,000 will be donated to [Olympic Medical Center].”
The OMC Foundation was awaiting a final tally of bills before exact totals will be available, but proceeds have already been distributed to Rotary and the other participating groups, said Karen Rogers, OMC Foundation board president.
The groups take $1 to $2 chunks per duck for their own activities, Skinner said.
Some 30,000 rubber ducks were dumped into the Lincoln Park pond in Port Angeles for this year’s race June 1.
Each duck ticket costs $5 for one chance to win or $25 for six chances to win cash prizes and Toyota Tacoma pickup truck or a Toyota Corolla sedan.
Special “VID” duck packages were sold to businesses for $250 and $500 and run their own race before the big race.
The foundation processes Duck Derby proceeds and distributes them to each group, Skinner said.
The tribe’s and other sponsorships show up in the purchase of VIP ducks as part of the event’s $150,000 in revenue.
The amount donated to the hospital will consist of total revenue minus event expenses and the take of the other groups.
The Duck Derby had the second largest revenue of any of the foundation’s seven fundraising events in 2013, generating $140,115 with expenses of $74,207, or 53 percent of revenue.
The Festival of Trees raised $180,902 in revenue 2013 and is budgeted to generate $184,200 when it is held in November, according to the foundation’s 2013 financial report.
In 2013, of the total generated by the Festival of Trees, $95,928 was spent on event costs, or 53 percent of revenue.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Bertha Cooper, former administrator of planning and development for Olympic Medical Center and a monthly columnist for the Sequim Gazette, contributed to this report.
