The Rotary Club of Greater Bend is now taking applications from area non-profits to be a recipient of the clubs’ 2013 Great Drake Park Duck Race proceeds.
Interested non-profits should download the 2013 Duck Race Charity Application form at www.greaterbendrotary.org, complete in its entirety, and either return to Mike Brown via email to mb-sb1@sbcglobal.net or by regular mail to
Deadline for submissions is March 29, 2013.
The
HISTORY OF THE DUCK RACE
According to Chas Nelson, a member of the Rotary Club of Greater Bend who helped organize the first race, the event was the idea of the Central Oregon Duck Club. The first race was in 1989 and was approved by the Lottery Commission for the boom collection and the type of ducks used.
“We had eight members in our Rotary that belonged to the Central Oregon Duck Club and we needed the Rotary to sell ducks for the event,” Nelson explained.
The first three years it was run under the U of O Lottery License with the Duck Club getting $1,000 of the proceeds. “As the event got bigger the Beavers didn’t like the idea that they were donating to the Ducks for there football team,” Nelson remembered.
“The Duck Club relationship ended and the Rotary took over the licensing. Janie Teater was one of the first volunteers to run the race and after a few years the size of the event was growing so the Bank of the Cascades donated $7,500 to hire a coordinator.”
Today the Rotary Club of Greater Bend is responsible for the race on the
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“About four years into the race we were storing the ducks and the boom and sales stuff in a county building on
Rotarians dump the ducks in the river at the
Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. In more than 160 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 30,000 Rotary clubs.
