A wonderful Ducky Derby story

Posted by Denise Yergenson

This is the greatest and most touching story about current Ducky Derby sales. The following letter was sent to Charlie Menoher by Jeffrey Sharpe, whose daughter Violet is selling Ducky Derby tickets from her hospital room. It is stories like these that make all the work on Ducky Derby so worthwhile.

Hello Mr. Menoher,

My oldest daughter lives with us in Redding, CA but (due to a genetic illness called Cystic Fibrosis) is currently in the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She spends several weeks there every year, plus several visits to the CF clinic, also in San Francisco.

She'll be a Senior at Shasta High School next year and is involved in their choir. In order to raise money for the choir's trip to Costa Rica next year, she's taken a novel approach to selling tickets for the Redding East Rotary's annual Ducky Derby.

Several years ago, she was interviewed by the San Francisco Examiner in connection with the way she decorates her hospital room to make it tolerable for her extended visits. In like fashion, the theme for her most recent stay has been...Duckies. She's taking the opportunity here in the hospital of decorating her room with ducks (see my wiki page for a slideshow of the ducks themselves at http://mr-sharpe.wikispaces.com) and hitting-up every doctor, nurse, respiratory therapist, and visitor for Ducky Derby sales. So far she's sold quite a few ducks and with another six days scheduled to be here, she hopes to be well on her way to paying for her share of the trip.

Just thought you might have an interest,

Jeffrey Sharpe