Don’t miss the 18th Rotary Duck Race during Kirkland Summerfest

The Rotary Club of Kirkland's 18th annual Great Puget Sound Duck Race is a featured Summerfest event to be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

August 3, 2015 1:13 pm
Rotary Club of Kirkland will put bright yellow ducks into Lake Washington this Saturday as a part of the 18th annual running of the Duck Dash.
Rotary Club of Kirkland will put bright yellow ducks into Lake Washington this Saturday as a part of the 18th annual running of the Duck Dash.

By Bob Webb

Rotary Club of Kirkland

The Rotary Club of Kirkland’s 18th annual Great Puget Sound Duck Race is a featured Summerfest event to be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Each year the Duck Dash raises about $30,000 to support Rotary service projects in Kirkland including college scholarships, a baseball league for disabled children, library books, reading and math support for children at John Muir Elementary School, teacher of the year and student of the month awards. It also supplies warm winter coats for school children in need. Kirkland Rotary also supports other local charities.

Founded in 1937 as the first Rotary club on the Eastside and second in Washington State, Kirkland Rotary has funded major projects every several years on top of those annual charities already listed. Most recently it helped fund the garden behind the Kirkland Heritage Center, the teen center at the Kirkland Boys and Girls Club and the picnic pavilion at Everest Park. Currently a picnic shelter is being developed at Waverly Beach Park in collaboration with the city of Kirklandand the Kirkland Parks Foundation.

The Duck Race is a raffle in which supporters “adopt a duck.” On race day, nearly 10,000 yellow rubber ducks are set up in a pen in Lake Washington at Marina Park. Each “duck adoption paper” has a number that corresponds to a number on one of the ducks. The ducks are raced down a course limited by oil containment booms to a finish chute allowing only one duck through at a time. The “mother or father” of the first five ducks each win $1,000. The next 10 win smaller prizes. Each adoption paper also contains 11 coupons offered by local businesses entitling the bearer to services/products. The winners are published at Marina Park, on the club’s webpage, and each winner is called with the good news on Monday.

The hard working Rotarians hope Kirkland residents will support the community by becoming the proud parent of many ducks.

Editor’s note: To adopt a duck visit the Kirkland Wednesday Market or contact the Kirkland Rotary. Ducks are $5 each or $20 for five ducks.