Quacking for a cause

With a shrill blow of the whistle, a plethora of bright yellow rubber ducks, all personalized with individual names, were thrown from a plastic box into the Jordan River on Sunday afternoon in Dunn Meadow.\nAs the ducks floated down the river, the first three to pass the “finish line,” about 15 yards from the starting line, were picked up and were called the winners.\nBy the final heat, both kids and adults were shouting words of encouragement such as “Come on, duckie!” to some of the toy ducks, while others were shouting “You’re going the wrong way!” to other that were floating back toward the starting line.\nAlpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity, has been sponsoring the Rubber Duck Regatta every year for 17 years, said Erica Honeywell, the co-coordinator of the event.\nHoneywell said all the money from this event will go directly to the March of Dimes, a national organization with the mission to “improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality,” according to the organization’s Web site. \nAlthough members of the service fraternity have been selling the rubber ducks throughout the whole semester, they also sold ducks at the event.\n“Buy a duck for a buck” was the slogan at the ticket table. For each ticket bought, a duck was sponsored to race in one of the 25 heats.\nWhile the duck race was the main event, Alpha Phi Omega also had games set up for the kids. The games were all free and included “Pin the Beak on the Duck,” freeze tag, a hula hoop and jump rope contest and an obstacle course. As a prize for participating, kids all received stickers or candy.\nKimberly Smith, a second grader at Arlington Heights Elementary School, said she had so much fun that she is looking forward to coming back next year. \n“I did almost everything,” Kimberly said.\nKimberly’s mother, Rebecca Smith, said Kimberly woke up extra early for the event. Although it was their first time participating in the Rubber Duck Regatta, she said she knows that Kimberly had a great time. \n“I think it’s exciting and very wonderful for the children,” Smith said.\nAlthough there were supposed to be 30 preliminary heats, there were only enough ducks for 25 preliminary heats. Honeywell, who has been planning for this event since the beginning of the semester, said that she sent out about 5,000 flyers to all the elementary schools in Bloomington. \nBut still, even before the event, fraternity members had already sold about 1,000 ducks, Honeywell said.\nFreshman Alex Luboff, a pledge trainer for the fraternity and a food committee member for the event, said selling ducks counted toward community service hours.\n“For every 10 ducks that we sold, we got one service hour,” Luboff said.\nHe said he sold 14 ducks to his parents and bought six with his spare change.\nAlthough none of his ducks won, those who won first, second and third place during the preliminary rounds were rewarded with gift certificates donated from local businesses such as the T.I.S. Bookstore, Steve & Barry’s and The Chocolate Moose. \nThe ducks who took first place in the preliminary rounds were able to continue on to the final round.\nDuring this round, the pressure was doubled. \nAfter a close race between rubber duck Abe and rubber duck Ayeisha, rubber duck Angel unsuspectingly came up from behind to pass the finish line and take the prize, $100 dollars in cash, for her sponsor, Carmen Francellno.