PORT ANGELES — Hundreds enjoyed a sunny, windless Sunday afternoon with ideal rising tides to witness a record-smashing 28,264 numbered rubber ducks race down a paper mill canal.
The 14th annual Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby raised about $120,000, said Bruce Skinner, executive director of the co-sponsoring Olympic Medical Center Foundation.
Duck sales this year beat the feathers off last year’s sales by 6,216 tickets.
“The main reason is there are a lot more people volunteering this year, and they are selling more than ever,” Skinner said of the sales force of about 450 who sold ducks for $5 each.
Corporate “Very Important Ducks” were sold for $500, $250 and $125 apiece.
Corporate VID sales came to 199 compared with 102 in 2002, said Skinner.
The duck’s share of the funds raised goes to Olympic Medical Center Foundation — and about $5,000 to the Sequim Rotary Club and Forks-based Soroptimists International of the Olympic Rainforest, Skinner said.
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