“Sunny” — the enormous yellow duck that serves as great PR for the Sunrise Rotary Club’s annual Great Duck Race — was inflated yesterday on Jesup Green.
Usually it takes a few days — after it’s been moved to the Saugatuck River — for it to topple over.
This year: less than 24 hours.
(Photo/Richard Hyman)
(Photo/Aya Camp)
If you’re wondering: This year’s race is Saturday, June 1 (11 a.m., Parker Harding Plaza). Click here for tickets, and more information.
Each spring, a giant inflatable duck floats in the Saugatuck River. It’s a fun, funny promotion for the Sunrise Rotary Club’s Great Duck Race.
This spring, he gets a companion.
On April 27, the 8th annual Maker Faire features a Great Duck Project. Attendees will try to set a world record for the largest 3D printed duck.
It’s “the first of its kind global crowd-sourcing science and art initiative,” says Mark Mathias. He’s the founder of the Westport’s Maker Faire, and a Sunrise Rotary member.
Artist’s rendering of the 6-foot 3D duck.
“Global” is no exaggeration. People from around the world are invited to 3D print and submit pieces. They’ll be combined into a 6-foot tall, 476-piece duck.
Mathias takes “around the world” literally. He reached out to the McMurdo station in Antarctica, to see if they’ll participate.
He even went galactic, asking if the International Space Station could print a part, then return it to earth on a supply mission. (Party-pooping NASA said no.)
But keeping the Great Duck Project terrestrial should be interesting enough.
Don’t have your own 3D printer? No sweat. There are plenty around, in libraries, schools and offices.
Once the world-record duck is printed, it won’t disappear. You can see it at the Memorial Day parade — and, of course, the Great Duck Race.
Quack!
(The Great Duck Project is a collaboration of the Westport Sunrise Rotary Club and Greens Farms Academy, which serves as the “technical lead.” For more information or to participate, click here. or contact Mark Mathias: mark@remarkablesteam.org; 203-226-1791.)
Posted onJune 9, 2018|Comments Off on Pic Of The Day #418
Crowds line Parker Harding Plaza for the start of today’s Great Duck Race. Nearly 3,000 plastic yellow ducks are corraled at the north end of the Saugatuck River. The event is a major fundraiser for Westport’s Sunrise Rotary Club. (Drone photo/Ryan Felner)
This was the scene earlier this afternoon, as the first of over 2,000 plastic ducks entered the Great Duck Race chute.
The winning duck won a $5,000 gift card. Nine other winners split another $5,000.
The fun- and fundraising event — complete with face painting, a bouncy ride and more — helps Westport’s Sunrise Rotary Club distribute tens of thousands of dollars to good causes, here and around the world.
If you missed the action, click here for 2nd Selectman Avi Kaner’s livestream on Facebook. Be warned: There was a false start. The action starts at the 17:30 mark.
Though dirty and bruised, Sunny the Duck is back bobbin’ along.
The very large and quite noticeable mascot for next Saturday’s Sunrise Rotary Great Duck Race had a rough couple of days. High winds toppled the poor guy.
A lesser duck might have folded.
But Sunny is made of sterner stuff. Here he is, an hour or so ago:
(Photo/Wendy Cusick)
To honor Sunny at next Saturday’s race — or just participate and have fun — click here.
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