PORT ANGELES — Daniel Thompson didn’t make it to the Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby on Sunday, but he won the top prize.
Thompson’s yellow rubber duck — one of more than 28,000 entered into Sunday’s 28th annual Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby — was the first to float over the finish line, earning Thompson a 2017 Toyota Corolla donated by Wilder Toyota of Port Angeles. The derby was at the Lincoln Park ponds.
“I’m still in shock,” the Port Angeles man said a couple hours after the race ended.
He said that when one of his friends called telling him he had won the car Sunday, he thought he was kidding.
“But he said, ‘no, you got it,’ ” Thompson said, adding he has never won anything like a new car.
“You don’t go through this kind of shock very often,” he said.
Thompson said that in addition to his car, he’s going to keep his Dodge pickup.
“I’ve gotta keep my truck,” he said.
He said he is thankful the duck derby is in the community and that the Wilder family has continued to support it.
In total, 45 prizes worth about $25,000 total were up for grabs this year with proceeds benefiting the Olympic Medical Center Foundation and the Sequim Rotary Club’s charitable projects.
Bruce Skinner, co-chair for the event, said it’s one of the OMC Foundation’s top fundraisers and that this year’s derby was the most profitable out of any in recent years.
He said the final number hasn’t been figured yet, but he estimates the duck derby raised some $100,000.
Skinner said it’s not unusual for the first-place winners to be absent from the race. Not one first-place winner in the derby’s 28 years has actually attended the race, he said.
This year only one of the 45 winners was actually at the race, he said.
The race began as a dump truck full of rubber ducks, which was parked on the bank above the pond, upended its load.
The rush of ducklings were pushed down a chute by streams of water from fire hoses operated by firefighters with Port Angeles Fire Department and Clallam County Fire District No. 2.
The horde of ducks that entered the water at the beginning slowly inched across the pond toward the finish line.
One by one, the first 100 ducks to cross the finish line were carefully documented and placed in plastic bags so they could be paired with their ticket owners.
Following the race, crews carefully corralled the ducks and removed them from the pond.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
Bob Lovell, co-chair of the 28th annual Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby, hands over a winning duck to be recorded Sunday. (Jesse Major/Peninsula Daily News)
Ducks race to the finish line during the 28th annual Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby in Port Angeles on Sunday. (Jesse Major/Peninsula Daily News)
Volunteers line up Very Important Ducks for their race before the main event during the 28th annual Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby in Port Angeles on Sunday. (Jesse Major/Peninsula Daily News)
