Brookfield made way for ducklings on Saturday, Sept. 26, as rubber ducks streamed down Salt Creek in the village’s fourth annual duck race fundraiser.
A crowd gathered by the Washington Street bridge before the rubber ducks were released into the water by a small construction excavator. Then, spectators made their way south on Forest Avenue or through the Oak Savannah to join a larger crowd of a couple hundred by the canoe launch behind Brookfield Village Hall, where a net was set up to capture the ducks.
After the ducks lackadaisically drifted on Salt Creek’s current, the first three to reach the net were recorded, with the winners later called out: George Ulrich in third place, Laura Kirk in second place and Pam Kosey in first place. They won $500, $750 and $1,000, respectively. Dorothy Nava, Grace Williamson and Jessica Yovich were named winners, too, as the owners of the first three golden ducks that reached the finish and received gift cards to businesses in Brookfield.
The duck race serves as a fundraiser for the organizing Brookfield Parks and Recreation Foundation, a nonprofit that covers up to half the cost of enrollment in park programs for low-income families in town who cannot afford the full costs.
Kyle Whitehead, a board member of the foundation, said ducks were sold all summer at $5 each. Anyone who bought 10 ducks, donating $50, earned a golden duck to bolster their chances of winning.
“We set a new record this year of more than 3,300 ducks sold,” Whitehead announced to the crowd on Saturday after the end of the race. “We are still tallying the final numbers, but with sponsorships and duck sales, we can say we raised more than $22,000 for the Brookfield Parks and Recreation Foundation.”
So far this year, the foundation raised and gave more than $16,000 to local families in the form of scholarships, Whitehead said.
In an email to the Landmark on Monday, Sept. 28, Whitehead confirmed the duck race raised $22,565 in gross revenue for the foundation through the sale of 3,343 ducks and 185 golden ducks.
“All of these figures are new records for the foundation,” he wrote.
With temperatures in the mid-to-high-60s and bright sunlight warming the canoe launch right next to the ongoing farmers market, many attendees described Saturday as a perfect day for the duck race.
Sandy Garvey is a member of the Brookfield Women’s Club, which helped the Parks and Recreation sell ducks throughout the summer.
“I’ve never seen [the duck race] before, and I have a grandbaby now, so I was checking it out for her. She’s a little too young right now to get it, but I took a video for her. [I wanted to] be part of the community on such a nice day,” Garvey said of her reasons for attending. “It was a lot of fun selling ducks. It’s a lot of fun seeing all the people come out and all the kids.”
The event was staffed by foundation board members Whitehead, Lisa Stefano, Julie Narimatsu, Paul Cozza, Jaime Agnello, Tony Chavez and Beth Damon, who sold t-shirts at a booth by the canoe launch. So-called “Quack Master” Adam Schauer preceded the cabal of rubber ducks down the river, alerting spectators before the winner, while John Chmura, Patrick Chmura and Nicholas Jacobucci scooped the ducks out of the river at the end of the route.
Schauer, who joked about being certified by the fictional “International Quack Master Association,” said he looks forward to the duck race “all year long.”
“It’s just such a thrill to see the competitiveness of the ducks,” he said.
