The Great Alaskan Duck Race will take place in Anchorage on Saturday. The event, where rubber ducks race as onlookers hope to take home a grand prize, aims to help a number of non-profit and community organizations. Among those is the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward.
Half of the proceeds from each ticket sale go to a chosen local organization. The Alaska SeaLife Center has been battling financial struggles due to the COVID-19 public health emergency throughout the year, and after a successful push to save the Center from being forced to close its doors at the end of the year, they are still aiming to stay afloat past that. Financial donations that benefit the SeaLife Center are especially important in September, as ConocoPhillips Alaska pledged a matching donation at the end of August. They pledged to match the next $250,000 that the Alaska SeaLife Center is able to raise. Memberships and other donations are eligible for this match through the month of September or until the $250,000 is reached.
Rubber ducks will be dropped and then race from the Ship Creek Overlook Park Bridge to the Bait Shack just below the Bridge Restaurant on lower Ship Creek in Anchorage. The first meeting point is King’s Landing, and event organizers advise to look for the big yellow duck. A $10,000 grand prize is at stake for those who participate, but there are other cash prizes for runners-up.
Only 12,000 tickets will be sold, and 11 teams are participating in selling tickets to benefit their organization. They include the Alaska SeaLife Center, Beans Cafe, the Scotty Gomez Foundation, the Anchorage Opera, Alaska EXCEL, among others.
Registration for Saturday’s event is still possible, and it will be livestreamed online, for those who cannot attend in Anchorage. Registration to benefit the SeaLife Center can be done by clicking here.
