Virtual Duck Race Benefits Eagle Rock’s Graduate Higher Ed Fund

We’re super excited to finally announce the pandemic version of the Estes Park Duck Race. This year’s highly anticipated Estes Park Rotary Duck Race is still on, featuring cash and high-end prizes, the excitement of a competitive race, and the opportunity to help Eagle Rock School graduates with the cost of higher education.

However, because of the ongoing health pandemic that is curtailing such in-person crowd-pleasing events around the globe, the 2020 duck race won’t exactly be all that it’s previously been quacked up to be. This year’s race will be delivered virtually, online. So when we say, “You don’t have to be present to win,” this time around we really mean you don’t have to be present to win. In fact, we would prefer you stay at home.

On a serious note, the Estes Park Rotary Duck Race is the biggest fundraiser of the year that we’re asked to participate in, and we’re grateful for the Estes Park Rotary Club’s decision to hold the 2020 race — broadcasting the event live and immediately announcing the winners to an audience of duck adopters watching online from the comfort of their homes.

Here’s are how things are going to go down the river this time around:

It’s going to be a virtual Duck Race, run on Saturday, Sept. 19. However, instead of dropping rubber duckies in the river and pulling them out at the finish line, the event’s organizers are going to put all the duck’s bib numbers in a rotating barrel and pull them out one by one.

Each duck’s bib number will be entered into the computer, as has been done for many years, winners will be determined by a Continue reading…

It’s Duck Race Time Again!

It’s that time of year again: Adopt a duck, send a graduate to college!

Read on for all the details:

The 2016 Duck Race & Festival benefiting the Eagle Rock School’s Graduate Higher Education Fund is scheduled for Saturday, May 7, in Estes Park, and is the perfect platform for parents, supporters and other members of the Eagle Rock community to raise funds for one of our most important projects on campus.

This — the 28th annual duck race — continues a tradition started in 1989 that has, so far, returned more than $2 million to local charities and groups.

How much money, you ask? A whopping $19 out of every $20 (or $21 if purchased online) spent to adopt a rubber ducky for the race goes directly to the Eagle Rock Graduate Higher Education Fund.

2016 Estes Park Duck Race Logo

If you do the math, that’s 95 percent of the proceeds from each duck adoption. Of course it helps that Rotary Club volunteers — like Eagle Rock’s own head of school, Jeff Liddle — run the Duck Race, thus keeping fundraising overheard low. That means that if you specify Eagle Rock School as the recipient, we get the $19 donation, which goes directly into our Graduate Fund, which supports past and future Eagle Rock graduates in their pursuit of higher education.

This program is unique to Eagle Rock, with each and every graduate eligible for up to Continue reading…

Recapping the Events of Our Latest Explore Week

Our most recent Explore Week here at Eagle Rock served a pair of purposes. First, it enabled our instructors to catch their second wind and prepare for future coursework. Second, it gave our students the opportunity to be engaged in activities they normally wouldn’t have time for during the regular trimester.

Our latest such Explore Week was in late October, and our students were treated to a variety of classes and events that ranged from art expeditions to the stress-relieving benefits of beating on a drum. The week was highlighted with guest artists and speakers, as well as a few Eagle Rock staffers who just happen to have their own special interests that proved interesting enough to stir student interest.

Some of the activities conducted during Explore Week included:

  • Student leaders Ashalou and Aaron Simon were co-leaders for the 2014 Orientation Class for our newest students.
  • Students Emelia, Javonnie, Desiree, Cristian, Cat and Yeshra traveled with Cindy Elkins (Visual Art Instructional Specialist), Dayna Safferstein (Public Allies Visual Arts Fellow) and Niko Viglione Public Allies Human Performance Center Fellow) to Santa Fe, New Mexico, on an art expedition.
  • Criminal attorney William Galloway brought students Rahmel, Daisy, Melvin, Jenny, Aaron, Levi, DJ, Jared and Carson up to date on their rights as U.S. citizens. His presentations included preserving rights while interacting with the police, as well as the history behind some landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Through popular culture references — such as Jay-Z’s hit “99 Problems” — sprinkled with an abundance of courtroom “war stories,” Galloway turned the Bill of Rights and a couple of hundred years of Supreme Court decisions into an interesting and meaningful experience.
  • Estes Park Rotary Club members heard Eagle Rock students Hunter, Mikaela, Cassandra, Sonja, Kiyah, Marty and Khalil share their Continue reading…