A few of the many ducks preparing for today’s Sunrise Rotary Club Great Race. Did yours win? (Photo/Dan Woog)
Posted in Organizations, Pic of the Day
“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.
Posted in Downtown, Organizations, Totally random
Tagged Great Duck Race, Jesup Green, Westport Sunrise Rotary
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.)
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)
Comments Off on Pic Of The Day #418
Posted in Downtown, Organizations, Pic of the Day
Tagged Great Duck Race, Parker Harding Plaza, Westport Sunrise Rotary
A bird’s-eye view of the Great Duck Race duck …
… and a wider-angle duck (Drone photos/Ben Berkley)
Posted in Downtown, Organizations, Pic of the Day
Double duck on the Saugatuck (Photo/Patricia McMahon)
Comments Off on Pic Of The Day #403
Posted in Downtown, Organizations, Pic of the Day
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.
Posted in Downtown, Organizations, Totally random
Tagged Great Duck Race, Sunny the Duck, Westport Sunrise Rotary
The tide was in their favor. The wind was not.
So this afternoon’s Great Duck Race was contested at less than warp speed.
That hardly mattered. A large crowd gathered at Parker Harding Plaza. Kids enjoyed face painting, a bounce house and games.
Adults bought rubber “ducks” — over 2,000 of them. At 3 p.m. they were dumped in the river.
At 3:30 the race began. Slowly — very slowly — the ducks made their way downstream.
Finally, a winner emerged. That duck earned its owner a $5,000 Visa debit card.
Nine other winners shared other Visa prizes.
But the real winners are the recipients of more than $20,000 in grants and projects that Westport Sunrise Rotary can now fund.
A Sunrise Rotary member wrangles over 2,000 ducks before the start of the race.
Crowds gathered at Parker Harding Plaza to enjoy duck-related activities.
One of the main attractions was a vintage fire engine.
First Selectman Jim Marpe sported a Sunrise Rotary Great Duck Race hat.
It was a slow, but photo, finish near the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Memorial Bridge.
Posted in Children, Downtown, Organizations
Sunny — the 23-foot inflatable duck promoting Westport Sunrise Rotary’s Great Duck Race on June 4 — has been the most popular downtown attraction since The Crane.
After hanging out by the library, he moved over to more ducky territory: the Saugatuck River.
Today’s near-90-degree heat must have gotten to him, though. Alert “06880” reader Dorian Barth spotted Sunny keeled over:
(Photo/Dorian Barth)
Or maybe he was just resting.
Posted in Downtown, Organizations
Click here to help support “06880” via credit card or PayPal. Any amount is welcome — and appreciated! Reader contributions keep this blog going. (Alternate methods: Please send a check to: Dan Woog, 301 Post Road East, Westport, CT 06880. Or use Venmo: @DanWoog06880. Thanks!)
