It’s a hoot’ to watch duck race
Marshall Noon Rotary Club fundraiser helps with scholarships
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MARSHALL -- Marshall Noon Rotary member Matt Pederson says "it's kind of a hoot" to see hundreds of small rubber ducks floating down the Redwood River heading toward the finish during the Sounds of Summer.
"It's been kind of fun for me -- is that you go down into the bottom of the river, standing there in the river by the trap, and you start to see people lined up on the banks of the river or standing on the bridges and things, and they start rooting for ducks," Pederson said. "And they have no idea, obviously, the numbers at the time when they're going through there, but it's still just kind of this hoot of rooting for that duck to make it in the track first. We have a little chunk of noodle that has holes cut in it, and then we stick the winners as they come through the trap to verify which ones came first, and then we try to announce the winner at the event. A lot of people standing around, but at the event or online, we'll post the winners right away."
Pederson is one of the original Marshall Noon Rotary Club organizers of the Sounds of Summer fundraising event that started in 2019 and once again will help lead the seventh annual duck race. The ducks are scheduled to be dumped into the river at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.
"We've always sold all the tickets, which I think has been awesome," Pederson said. "There's other places that do duck races that are much bigger than ours. This is a really kind of a small one.
And it just helps our club, being a small club -- that you know, $5 a ticket is also an inexpensive ticket, and it's a fun, fun thing for us to do. Since 2019, we've always sold all 700 tickets."
Pederson explained that funds raised from the duck race helps fund three $1,000 college scholarships for students from Marshall. The funds are also used for other club projects and benefit the community.
Pederson expects perfect river conditions for the race
"When all the ducks get thrown into the river, they're mixed up in a couple different garbage barrels. We mix them up real good, toss them back and forth, and make sure we mix them as good as possible. And then they get thrown in so randomly that once they float that short bit down the river from behind the bike trail to the Memorial Park Bridge, that they're nice and scrambled up," he said. "And honestly, the water flow the first year was just perfect. (The water) was about above over our knees, and we had a chance to kind of experiment to see how many noodles it took, and all that kind of stuff to catch them. And then I know our kids were there, and some other Rotarian kids showed up, and we all had these catch nets. And so the winners come through, and then we just go crazy and pick them up, and it's fun because you you're tromping through the river. The water level was great."
Pederson said last year was the first time the duck race could not be held in the river because the water was too high. The winning tickets were picked out at a random drawing event during the Sound of Summer. He said the water level "looks great" and expects a "nice slow race."
Marshall Noon Rotary members have been selling tickets for the past month. They plan on selling tickets at the Marshall Sunrise Rotary Club pancake breakfast on Saturday morning, during the parade and after the parade.