PORT ANGELES — Yellow rubber ducks will “race” at Lincoln Park on Sunday in the 29th annual Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby.
About 26,000 duck tickets had been sold as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, an increase of 17 percent over the same time last year, said Bruce Skinner, executive director of the Olympic Medical Center Foundation. Proceeds will benefit the foundation and the Sequim Rotary Club’s charitable projects.
During the main race at 2 p.m., all of the numbered ducks for which duck tickets were purchased will be dumped into the Lincoln Park Pond on race day.
Those who hold the tickets for the first 50 ducks to cross the finish line will win prizes.
The grand prize will be a 2018 Toyota Corolla provided by Wilder Toyota. Fifty prizes are up for grabs this year.
Duck tickets can be purchased from members of the OMC Foundation, many Olympic Medical Center employees and Sequim Rotary Club members, as well as countless volunteers who pitch in to raise money for worthwhile projects, according to a news release.
Ducks are on sale daily through today at the Peninsula Daily News and through Saturday at all Safeway stores in Port Angeles and Sequim, Swain’s General Store, Lovell’s Chevron and 76 convenience stores, Jim’s Pharmacy, Wilder Toyota, KONP, Thomas Building Center, First Federal and several other locations.
Each duck ticket costs $6. For $30, adopters receive an extra duck (six chances to win) in the race. Just prior to the main race at 1:30 p.m., the Bub and Alice Olsen Very Important Duck (V.I.D.) Race will be held.
This is an opportunity for businesses and individuals, including those from outside the North Olympic Peninsula who do business with local companies, to purchase special V.I.D. ducks emblazoned with their logo. They are priced at $300, $600 and $1,200 each.
A race just for kids also is planned.
Children younger than 18 can report to the Kids’ Pavilion between noon and 12:30 p.m. and purchase and decorate a duck for $5, which will be entered into the Duck Derby Duck Pluck presented by Olympic Kids Dental.
Winners will receive trophies, while all entrants will be able to keep their artistic duck creation once the Duck Pluck is over.
The races are presented by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.
For more information, contact the Olympic Medical Center Foundation at 360-417-7144 or see https://www.omhf.org/.
Autumn Wilson Rowland shows off her first-place trophy in the 2017 Duck Derby Duck Pluck.
