PORT ANGELES — One, two, three — 1,000 . . . the ducks add up for Quacker Backer John Wahl, the top duck-ticket seller of all time for the Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby.
As of Wednesday, Wahl had already sold 1,620 duck tickets this year, bringing his lifetime total to 22,388.
“It’s what I do 30 days a year from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Wahl said as duck-ticket sellers race toward their finish line — Sunday’s 22nd annual Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby race in the Nippon Paper Industries mill canal at the end of Marine Drive in Port Angeles.
Wahl, who has been the leading individual seller for 24 years, had been out-sold by Wednesday by Bill Littlejohn.
Littlejohn’s 2011 sales hit 1,900 Wednesday, pushing him into the lead.
The leader board changes almost daily.
On Sunday, Kim Wakefield held the lead, and Tuesday, it was Wahl.
By Wednesday, Wakefield was the third-place seller, with 1,484 ducks sold this year, bringing her lifetime total to 7,878 ducks.
Volunteers had sold about 22,000 duck tickets by Wednesday, said Bruce Skinner, executive director of the Olympic Medical Center Foundation.
By race day, Skinner expects some 30,000 yellow rubber ducks to swim at 11:30 a.m. in the Nippon mill canal.
Holders of tickets for the first 44 ducks to cross the finish line will win prizes worth a total of more than $25,000, with the grand prize being a new 2011 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck or a Toyota Corolla provided by Wilder Toyota.
The V.I.D. — Very Important Duck — Race will be at 11 a.m., just prior to the main race.
The Bub and Alice Olsen Very Important Duck Race is an opportunity for businesses and individuals, including those from outside the Peninsula who do business with local companies, to buy ducks with their logos emblazoned on them.
Proceeds will benefit the Olympic Medical Center Foundation and the Sequim Rotary Club’s charitable projects.
Duck tickets can be purchased from members of the OMC Foundation, many Olympic Medical Center employees, Sequim Rotary Club members, the Forks’ Soroptimist International of the Olympic Rainforest, at the Peninsula Daily News at 305 W. First St., as well as through other volunteers.
Duck tickets cost $5 each, $25 for a six-pack or $250 for the large V.I.D.s.
Wahl’s worst year was his first year, he said, when he sold only 88 duck tickets.
His best year? He sold 3,376 duck tickets.
“They gave me a big duck with those numbers printed on it,” he said.
That duck is the only prize or payment Wahl gets for all of the hours he puts in, except for a pat on the back.
“They double my salary every time I get top seller,” he said.
“That’s 24 times zero. My thanks are doing a good job and contributing to the community.”
For Wahl, the monthlong duck-ticket selling marathon is a hobby, something to occupy his time during his retirement.
“It’s an honorable pursuit. It takes as much time as you want to give it,” he said.
Wahl’s secret to selling ducks is the best site in Port Angeles — the Safeway at East Third and Lincoln streets — and to “accost and insult” customers.
“Hey, slick, where’s your duck?” Wahl barked Tuesday at a customer who was heading out the door.
“Already got it,” the customer called back as he escaped outside.
Wahl is spelled for two hours a day by Port Angeles Lions Club members, who don’t have the kind of numbers the champion posts but are ready to sell.
Lions member Scooter Chapman spent two hours in Wahl’s chair Tuesday and sold a V.I.D., which is worth 250 individual duck tickets.
That duck meant a lot to the Lions volunteers, who work hard every year to sell duck tickets but don’t achieve the kind of numbers some other volunteers post.
“It’s service to the community,” Lions volunteer Larry Buckley said.
Wakefield sells duck tickets for two hours a day and said she isn’t likely to catch up to Wahl anytime soon.
Most of Wakefield’s sales come in a single package, she said.
Every year, Westport Shipyard buys 800 duck tickets in the names of the company’s employees, she said.
“I get bumped up quickly to the top of the leader board,” she said.
Wakefield, who sells duck tickets at Swain’s General Store, 602 E. First St., counts on return customers for many of her sales.
“People are loyal to their duck sellers,” she said.
Wakefield lived in Port Angeles in the late 1990s. She moved away, and when she returned, the medical facilities available in the area had improved dramatically.
“I couldn’t believe how much more they had medically available,” she said.
Wakefield joined the duck-sales force to keep the progress going, she said.
As of Sunday, other duck-ticket sales leaders were:
■ Tanya Smith and Gail Ralston — 911 ducks.
■ Gay Lyn Iseri — 470 ducks.
Prizes in the races will include cash prizes sponsored by 7 Cedars Casino, gift certificates worth up to $500, as well as dozens of other prizes.
On race day, the Kids’ Pavilion, KONP’s live radio broadcast, and refreshments will be at the celebration.
For more information, visit www.omhf.org or phone 360-417-7144.
