Buying a Flock of Rubber Ducks Supports Eagle Rock School Scholarships

Just as the swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano each year, the rubber duckies return to Estes Park — this year on Saturday, May 5 — continuing a three-decade tradition that has seen more than $2.4 million returned to our mountainside community as a result of Duck Race Festival purchases and disbursements to local organizations like Eagle Rock.

Dozens of area charities and organizations — including the Graduate Higher Education Fund here at Eagle Rock School — are recipients of nearly 100 percent of the proceeds from the Estes Park Rotary Duck Race Festival, which starts at Nicky’s Resort alongside the Fall River in downtown Estes Park, Colo.

The excitement mounts as race participants line the river to see thousands of adopted rubber duckies released into the waterway, floating downstream to the finish line on the Big Thompson River near Rockwell Street. Each duck is a potential winner to its adopted owner, with hundreds of prizes available to those with the fastest duckies to finish the 2 ½ mile race.

And we’re not talking about toys, plastic trophies or inexpensive stuffed animals being awarded as prizes. In addition to major support from sponsors of the race, the duck race committee has rounded up some serious gifts, ranging from vacation packages to tropical locales such as Costa Rica and the Mexican Riviera, to creative and costly prizes donated by Estes Park merchants.

Of course, you can’t win any of these fabulous prizes if you don’t adopt a duck. The price for participation is only $20 for each duck you adopt. The cost is $22 for an online adoption. But here’s where the real deal lies: For each duck you adopt, $19 goes directly to our Graduate Higher Education Fund benefiting college scholarships for Eagle Rock School graduates.

NOTE: To ensure Eagle Rock is credited with your purchase, in the Other Information section of the checkout form, be sure to select Eagle Rock School in the mandatory Select Charity dropdown menu.

Our Grad Fund is unique in that it directly and immediately supports the needs of our high school graduates with a $14,000 scholarship for higher education. We’re setting a goal of $10,000 for this year’s effort to support the future through our graduates.

Last year alone, our scholarship fund benefitted from more than $9,000 as a direct result of the Estes Park Rotary Duck Race. So now that you know a little about our cause and the amount of funding we’re able to raise when lots of our stakeholders participate, why would you stop at adopting only one duck when you can grab up two, or three, or an entire pack of 10 ducks?

Here’s how it all breaks down:

• A single online duck adoption is $22 (of which $19 goes to our Graduate Higher Education Fund)
• An online Quack Pack (3 ducks) is $62 (of which $57 goes to the Graduate Higher Education Fund)
• An online Flock Pack (5 ducks) is $102 (of which $95 goes to the Graduate Higher Education Fund)
• And an online Paddling Pack (10 ducks) will cost you $202 (of which $190 goes to the Graduate Higher Education Fund)

For those seeking a way to help our Eagle Rock grads and have some fun in the process, here’s another incentive: the opportunity to win some major prizes and merchandise from our business community — all to be given away following the race:

• The Grand Prize is a choice of two trips — or $6,000 in cash. Eight nights in Costa Rica, or seven nights on Mexico’s Mayan Riviera. Your pick.
• Second prize is a choice of a five-day Seattle/Vancouver Rail Trip; three nights in San Diego with airfare; or $3,000 cash. Again, you select the destination.
• Third prize is choice of two trips (or $2,000 cash) to a historic hotel in Albuquerque for three nights or three nights at a first-class hotel on the Las Vegas strip. Both trips include airfare.

Other major prizes include vacation trips with vouchers for airfare to Yellowstone National Park; Yosemite National Park; the Pine Lodge in Whitefish, Montana near Glacier National Park; and the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Duck adoptees also have the opportunity to win literally hundreds of merchant prizes donated by local business owners in Estes Park. And you don’t have to be present for the race to win. Just check back later (on the Duck Race website) to see if you’re a winner. The race committee will also be notifying winners by email.

In addition to adopting a duck(s) to support our higher education fund, we’d appreciate it if you could also share this blog post on your Facebook page. And while you’re on the computer or mobile device, email a link to this blog post to friends who aren’t into Facebook. And be sure to click on this link and adopt as many ducks as you can comfortably afford to help our graduates take the next important step after graduation.

Finally, to ensure Eagle Rock is credited with your purchase, in the Other Information section of the checkout form, be sure to select Eagle Rock School in the mandatory Select Charity dropdown menu, as shown below: