PORT ANGELES — Ready, set, duck!
During a “quacky” kind of contest at the Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby on Sunday, 42 prizes worth more than $25,000 will be won as thousands of rubber ducks float to the finish line at the Nippon Paper Industries canal.
The Bub and Alice Olsen Very Important Duck race will begin at 3 p.m.
The main race will be at 3:30 p.m.
Both will be at Nippon at the base of Ediz Hook.
The person who bought the ticket for the first duck to cross the finish line in the main race will win either a Toyota Tundra or Corolla donated by Wilder Toyota.
The next 41 ducks will win prizes. Second prize is $1,500 in cash and the third place winner will receive $750 in cash, both from 7 Cedars Casino.
Other prizes are gift certificates worth up to $500, as well as dozens of other prizes.
The Duck Derby benefits the Olympic Medical Center Foundation, with proceeds going to the Olympic Medical Center, and the Sequim Rotary Club’s charitable projects.
Duck tickets are $5 each. Each $5 duck ticket comes with more than $20 in coupon savings.
People who purchase five duck tickets for $25 also will receive a rubber duck to take home or a sixth duck to enter in the race.
Duck purchasers receive a ticket number for each adopted duck, which corresponds to a number on the duck.
All of the numbered ducks are dumped into the Nippon Paper Industries canal on race day.
More than 25,000 duck tickets had been sold by Thursday morning, said Bruce Skinner, Olympic Medical Center Foundation executive director.
“We are ahead of last year and two years ago — and that year was our best ever,” Skinner said.
The 2009 derby sold about 30,000 duck tickets, or about 6,000 fewer than the year before.
“We will continue to sell many, many ducks this weekend,” Skinner said.
“I think we are on the road to have either our best or our second-best derby ever.”
The Bub and Alice Olsen Very Important Duck (VID) Race is an opportunity for businesses and individuals, including those from outside the Peninsula who do business with local companies, to purchase special VID ducks emblazoned with their logo for $250 each.
VID participants also receive 50 ducks in the main race. The top three finishers will receive $1,000, $500 or $250 cash prizes.
On race day, vendors will sell food, and entertainment is planned.
The Kids’ Pavilion will include clowns, games, prizes and even a meeting with the big duck.
KONP radio will broadcast the event live at 1450 AM, 102.1 FM and on the Internet at www.KONP.com.
Tickets can be purchased from members of the OMC Foundation, Duck Derby volunteers, Sequim Rotary Club members, the Forks’ Soroptimist International of the Olympic Rainforest and at Peninsula Daily News offices (see addresses, Page A2).
For more information, phone the OMC Foundation at 360-417-7144.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige. dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
