Literacy Council to host second annual duck race

Aug 24, 2023

Following the success of last year's event, the Literacy Council of Garland County will be hosting its Second Annual Rubber Duck Race Saturday near Transportation Depot and the Hot Springs Farmers and Artisans Market.

As of Monday afternoon, around 100 people were registered for the race, which is nearing last year's participation number of 140 ducks.

"We've had a lot of great interest from people who came last year," Sarah Richardson, executive director of the literacy council, said.

"It was a lot smaller last year. We just did the Duck Race and had a few little activities, but this year, we're going to have giant bubbles. The folks who do the bubbles are coming.

"A mime is coming. we're gonna paint ducks. The folks from child care aware are bringing the giant Connect Four game. ... We're gonna have food trucks, so it'll be fun for the whole family."

The afternoon's activities start at 4 p.m. with the race starting at 6:30 p.m.

"It's gonna be a lot bigger this year," Richardson said.

"We also have more prizes. Adrianne Kahn donated the first-place prize, which is a pair of earrings valued at $350. Chefs for Seniors have donated one of their packages. It's valued at $250. We've got some gift cards.

"We're going to have a prize for the stuck duck, the duck that gets stuck in the weirdest spot, last place. The race itself is going to be bigger, too. It's a lot of fun."

Entry into the race is $20 per duck, and the funds go to help the organization work to improve literacy for people in Garland County.

"It is a fundraiser for us," Richardson said.

"We have a lot of great grant supporters. We have an amount of state funding that luckily was increased this year thanks to local efforts and efforts around the state, but that can never make up more than half of our budget and the rest has to come from local support.

"We have some great local foundations like the Community Foundation, the Giving Circle, local Rotary clubs are all great supporters, but the rest has to come from donations and fundraisers," she said.

"But if you're gonna do a fundraiser, you might as well have some fun with it. We have another event that we did for the first time this year called Read Between the Wines, and we'll do that again. But this is just family fun to get out and enjoy the day and hopefully talk a little bit about literacy and the impact it has on our community in a way that's something different, something that everybody can get involved with."

Richardson said the Literacy Council of Garland County works with adults to improve literacy in reading, writing, math and more.

"We've helped some adults improve their English to get a job promotion, to pass their citizenship test," she said.

"We've had, just in the last year, someone passed the written part of their driver's test, an adult. That written part can get a lot of folks that can't get to the next part, and they need to be able to have a driver's license to get a job.

"We have a gentleman who was studying for a licensing exam at work ... to get a promotion. It's part of the process to become a millwright. So he had all the skills, just the written test part was in his way, and so we helped him study for that."

In her third year at the helm of the local organization, Richardson said there has been a huge increase in the number of people helped.

"The year before I came on board we served 19 students," she said.

"We wrapped up 2022 with 142, and that varies how long people stay. Some people come for that first hour and can't commit. Maybe their job gets in the way or whatever, but a lot of people stick around," Richardson said.

"And it varies based on the person how many hours they need. The person who passed the driver's test, it was four sessions; it equaled about just under five hours. That's what they needed. The gentleman studying for that test, he's been with us for several years, starting up slowly through different goals he wanted to meet."

The exact location of the race will be determined later this week after organizers have a chance to look at how much water is flowing down the creek.

"I hope people will come and check it out and learn a little about us, too, while they're down there," Richardson said.

"We're not 100% sure where we'll be 'til later in the week when the water level's kind of where we can look, but we'll be between the Transportation Depot and the Farmers Market, so if you just make it down there and park you'll find us. We'll be set up where the water is the best."

Print Headline: Literacy Council to host second annual duck race

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