A rubber duck armada 2,500 strong will storm Kokomo Beach on Thursday.

Non-profit group Samaritan Caregivers Inc. is getting ready for its 11th annual Duck Derby, the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year.

For $5, an adult and child 12 or younger or two children 12 or younger can swim, have free pizza and soda and see thousands of yellow rubber ducks duke it out to determine which is the fastest rubber, billed bird in the park.

“When you step back and look at it, really, swimming, pizza, Coke and the chance to win something, that’s pretty good for today’s economy,” said Jamey Henderson, executive director for Samaritan Caregivers.

Each ticket will enter a duck in the race. Samaritan Caregivers will give out 10 prizes, including the grand prize, a $500 Wal-Mart gift card. All the prizes are worth at least $100.

Samaritan Caregivers added a prize this year at no extra charge, but it comes with a 1-in-625,000 chance of winning.

The organization will randomly pluck one of the 2,500 ducks and write down its number. The top 10 from the race will be eligible for a lottery. If any of the top 10 have the secret number, then that duck’s ticket holder will win $10,000.

“It’s not a for-sure thing,” Henderson said. “The odds really aren’t all that good, but hey, there’s a chance there, isn’t there?”

The feature race begins 7:30 p.m. in the lazy river. Ticket holders don’t need to be at the event to collect their prizes.

“It’s OK to just buy a $5 ticket from some place,” Henderson said. “... You may win, but if not, it’s a donation to a really good cause. I can’t understate the importance of this event.

“We need it to be a really strong fundraiser this season. This $5, it’s not that much.”

Samaritan Caregivers raised about $15,000 with the Duck Derby last year.

“We would love to come in over that,” Henderson said. “Even in today’s economy, we still feel like this is possible.”

To help with the fundraising, Samaritan Caregivers also has the Papa Duck race, named after corporate sponsor Papa John’s Pizza.

Businesses can pay $100 for an oversized rubber duck that they will enter in their own race before the featured one.

“It gives [businesses] a lot of visibility,” Henderson said. “They can decorate their duck, display it at their business. A lot of them have employees that just have a great time decorating the duck.”

So far, more than 60 Papa Duck entries are signed up for Thursday.

Before the Papa Duck race, which is 7:15 p.m., judges will also award the business with the most creatively decorated duck, a main strategy for some of the businesses, such as Northwood Commons.

Stacey Jones, leasing director for the business, said employees laminated a photo of President Barack Obama’s face to their duck like a mask.

“We have a clever little duck design. We thought President Obama had won one race with a land slide, [so] it will work for him,” Jones said, adding on the duck was not meant to represent a political affiliation.

Henderson said event organizers created a 2009 Duck Derby group on Facebook so competitors could have fun with smack talk before the race.

“We make a big deal out off the fact that people are supposed to be training their duck,” she said. “People have a lot of fun comparing notes for training the ducks — diets, extra TLC.

Henderson said jokingly there is a “zero tolerance” policy for performance enhancing drugs and fixing mechanical devices to the ducks.

“And they have to train them humanely,” she said as she laughed. “We want to make sure they’re not dragging them behind a car like Rocky.”

• Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at (765) 454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.



If You Go

• What: Duck Derby 2009

• When: 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday (Rain date is set for Aug. 3)

• Where: Kokomo Beach Water Park

• Tickets: Samaritan Caregivers office or board member, National City and Harris banks, Woody’s, Alto Express, Mac’s Market, Kokomo Beach (Thursday only)



Schedule

• 5 p.m. - Event begins

• 5:30 p.m. - Judging for Papa Duck decorating contest

• 7 p.m. - Kokomo Beach closes to the public and opens exclusively for Duck Derby ticket holders.

• 7:15 p.m. - Papa Duck race

• 7:30 p.m. - Feature race

• 7:45 p.m. - Winners announced

• 8 p.m. - Lazy river opens for swimmers

• 9 p.m. - Event ends