Little white ducks were found all over campus last Thursday. These snow ducks were carefully crafted by IU senior Cody Rogers.
Rogers was gifted a duck mold, which was created specifically to shape snow, by a friend in October last year. He has been carrying the mold in his backpack since after the first snowfall on Halloween.
During finals week, he spent three hours by the Showalter Fountain using the mold to create around 200 ducks.
Rogers said he began assembling the ducks as a way to say thank you to his friend for the present and because it made him happier.
“When I was making all of the snow ducks around the fountain, there were tons of people who seemed to really enjoy it,” Rogers said. “So, it kept my drive going, and I just kept making more and more and more.”
Rogers had only planned on making one snow duck Thursday. He left the duck by Sample Gates, then went to lunch. When he returned, the duck was gone.
“I was like, oh somebody took this duck, they must really enjoy it. So I went ahead and made a couple more and left them at Sample Gates, and then I just sort of spiraled out and started placing them all over,” Rogers said.
Rogers doesn’t always make hundreds of ducks at a time. Sometimes he makes 10 or 15 as he walks to class. He said he was satisfied knowing his ducks could make just one person’s day better.
Junior Cassie Ruch said the ducks were wholesome and made her laugh. Sophomore Eli McCoy said he thought it was a nice gesture to make ducks for other people to enjoy them.
“The guy who did it must be pretty selfless,” McCoy said.
Rogers is studying studio arts, graphic design and digital media. He said he did not think of his ducks as art until a woman walked out of the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design and asked him about the creations, which she referred to as an exhibit.
He said this caused him to think about his ducks more artistically, and now he sometimes plans the placement of his ducks more carefully, like when he arranged them to spell the word “QUACK.”
The reaction to the snow ducks has been surprising, Rogers said.
People always expressed their admiration in person when they saw him making the ducks, but he soon gained a much larger audience when the Instagram account The Tab IU posted about his ducks last Friday.
Rogers said he plans to keep making the ducks, but this is dependent on the available snowfall. He said he hopes snow ducks might become a tradition on campus and continue after he graduates.
Rogers said that anyone could make snow ducks. After all, he said, duck molds are very affordable online.
“I’m just someone who had too much fun with his duck mold,” Rogers said.
