A rubber duck race is a type of festival where thousands of

rubber duck A rubber duck or a rubber duckie is a toy shaped like a stylized duck, generally yellow with a flat base. It may be made of rubber or rubber-like material such as vinyl plastic. Rubber ducks were invented in the late 1800s when it became pos ...

s race on a river, usually within the city. Normally they are fundraising events and the ducks are given numbers which enables the participants to "adopt" a rubber duck for a small amount of money. If the rubber duck wins or places well, the participants will win money or a prize of some sort. The proceeds of "adopting" a rubber duck go to the

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that is in charge of the event. In legal terms, a rubber duck race would be classified as a

raffle A raffle is a gambling competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each of which has the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn at random from a container holding a copy of each number. The drawn tickets are che ...

in Germany.Renate Schüßlbauer: ''Duck Race – Top oder Flop?'' Workshop beim deutschen Fundraising-Kongress 200
als pdf
/ref> The location and origin of the first rubber duck race is unclear, such as one source stating it took place in 1987 in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, while another says that a charity in

Dyserth Dyserth ( cy, Diserth) is a village, community and electoral ward in Denbighshire, Wales. Its population at the 2011 United Kingdom census was 2,269 and was estimated by the Office for National Statistics as 2,271 in 2019. It lies within the ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, held its first annual rubber duck race in 1980. In the 1990s rubber duck races spread across the industrialised world. Nowadays, they are regarded as a more inventive kind of fundraising and the rubber duck is a symbol of the generosity of the organiser. In comparison to other types of raffles, a duck race involves a considerable amount of preparation. To some extent organisers are already afraid of potential risks, seeing as duck races apparently take place too often. The races are further controversial in terms of environmental protection, given that thousands of plastic objects are put into the water and there is no guarantee of them all being completely taken out of the water after the end of the race. The number of rubber ducks used in such races differs considerably, however, organisers state an average of 3,000 ducks used. The biggest duck race so far has taken place on

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

on 31 August 2008. It was called the ''Great British Duck Race'', with 250,000 blue rubber ducks in usage. Thereby the organisers broke their own record of the previous year, where 165,000 yellow rubber ducks were used.''World Record Racers Are Blue''
/ref> Germany's biggest rubber duck race took place in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

in 2001 with 50,000 ducks floating on the "Fühlinger See". The race in the area of

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

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Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is ...

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Schweich Schweich is a town in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Moselle, approx. northeast of Trier. Schweich is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Schweich an der R ...

received an award by the initiative "Deutschland – Land der Ideen" as one of 365 projects.16 vor: „Entenrennen für ‚nestwärme‘“
In 2008 fifty-one duck races took place in Germany.Entenrennen-Termine
/ref> The races attract up to 80,000 spectators.Marita Haibach: ''Handbuch Fundraising''. Campus Verlag, 2006, {{ISBN, 3593379341, S. 305. The ducks for the races are specially made with a very flat base and a small metal weight for stabilisation purposes. Additionally, these ducks make no sound. The ducks are numbered now and participants can rent as many as they want. Since 2008 the organisers of the ''Great British Duck Race'' have used blue ducks instead of the traditional yellow ones, because some people bring their own rubber ducks and set them in the water near the finish line.

Literature

* Lotte Larsen Meyer: ''Rubber Ducks! Their Significance in Contemporary American Culture''. In: ''The Journal of American Culture''. Band 29, Issue 1, 2008, S. 14–23.

References

Charity fundraisers Ducks in popular culture

See also

Literature

References