We kicked off the ticket selling phase of Duck Dash 2018 at our meeting on May 24. Interim chair, John Peeters, unveiled (hardly a secret) our shirt design.  Community under construction is this year's theme, as illustrated by our shirts and hard hats.

 

The Crowning of the Ducks this year was done, as is the tradition, by Ron Love, who helped hatch the idea of having a rubber duck race 30 years ago. 

Ron Love

Ron started with this proclamation: Let’s thank everyone for being a Rotarian and it takes courage to be a Rotarian because we are leaders in the community.  

When the duck dash was started, regulations were changed by the gambling commission to allow alternative format raffles including random selection of winners in a duck race.  Our race was the first in the State, so we had commission members viewing how it was done.

The first year, there were many funny mishaps with the ducks. The first year our club spent $17,000 to put on the Duck Dash with no sponsorships with a profit of $5000. We almost saw all the profit lost when the rubber ducks, which were rented  for 50 cents each from a Canadian charity, went over the boom and down the river. Members and other community members were successful in recovering the ducks! Here is a link to this history:  DUCK DASH HISTORY.

As Ron, as we launch our 30th Great Stilly Duck Dash, stated: Thank you for being courageous! 

Ron went on, in his typical fashion, to tease a few "wanta be" ducks, before crowning the new members of the Royal Order of the Duck.

And the Ducks Are:

This Year Our Ducks are Fitz Couhig, Top, and Jennifer Holocker, Bottom.

Tickets were distributed at the meeting and Carla, our high seller last year, and Dale, runner up last year, our ticket selling co-chairs, went over the game plan.

 Dale Duskin & Carla Gastineau

Remember that the Duck Dash is a time to have fun. Each team is asked to raise $7500, that is $1500 per person for a 5 member team.  Remember that with fun we will sell tickets! We will have prizes each week.

We have to account to the gambling commission for every ticket issued--sold or unsold. Rotarians can sell tickets and anyone under your supervision can sell tickets. Information is in each packet that were distributed. 

When the construction theme was adopted, we thought on July 4 that construction would be in full swing with completion to be this summer.  Unfortunately, with the tight construction time line ,there was only one bid.  It was rejected and new bids, using a different time line, have been sought.  New splash pad bids are due by June 14 with construction to be done by March and open by next 4^th of July.