By Jeff Morrow

Playing with rubber duckies isn’t just for little kids in the bathtub.

For more than a quarter of a century, Tri-City adults have been racing the plastic yellow toys in the name of charity.

Tri-City Rotarians’ 28th annual Mid-Columbia Duck Race is Saturday, Oct. 8, in Kennewick’s Columbia Park. The event has raised more than $2 million since its inception.

“The money we raise stays in the community,” said Rick Routh, chairman for the Duck Race Board and Committee. “Probably each year, for the last several years, the net proceeds have been between $100,000 and $115,000.”

Here’s how it works: Each duck race ticket costs $5. You must be 18 or older to buy one. Each ticket is assigned to a corresponding duck.

The ducks will be dumped into the Columbia River at noon Oct. 8. If your lucky duck gets to the finish line ahead of the flock, you win one of 44 prizes.

The owner of the first duck across the finish line wins the grand prize, a new 2016 Toyota Prius Two.

Routh is quick to point out the event wouldn’t happen without the support of the local business community.

“Banner Bank and Toyota of Tri-Cities are our two premier event sponsors,” he said.

Toyota of Tri-Cities donated the grand prize, and more than 40 other businesses also have donated prizes.

Rotarians unite

The six Tri-City Rotary clubs work together to organize the annual event:  Columbia Center Rotary, Columbia Valley Daybreak Rotary, Pasco-Kennewick Rotary, Richland Riverside Rotary, Richland Rotary and Tri-Cities Sunrise Rotary.

The international service organization founded in 1905 aims to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and to advance goodwill and peace around the world.

All six clubs have their own special fundraisers, Routh said.

“For instance, Columbia Center Rotary runs the Bingo Boulevard business in Kennewick,”  Routh said, a member of the Tri-Cities Sunrise Rotary. “Our particular club uses the duck race as our big event.”

He says Sunrise Rotary has sold the most tickets for the past 13 to 14 years.

“We average about 150 to 160 tickets sold with our 85 members,” he said.

All six clubs are involved in the duck race, selling tickets and planning it.

“While they’re all individual clubs, the duck race is owned collectively by all six clubs,” Routh said. “Each club provides a member to be on the board each year.”

In the Tri-Cities, you could go to a Rotary meeting every day of the work week, Monday through Friday, if you wanted to.

Routh, who runs Routh Consulting Engineers in Pasco, has been a Rotarian for 25 years.

“When it was started back in Illinois, you could have no more than one person from the same industry involved,” said Routh. “That’s obviously changed. But you also need to have the discretionary money to help with service projects.”

Rotarians come from all walks of life, he said.

Most are people who own or run businesses, or are involved in business, who want to do give back to their community.

“There is quite an array of people involved in the Tri-Cities clubs,” he said.

And many of those people look forward to working on the Mid-Columbia Duck Race.

“It’s kind of a spectacle,” Routh said. “You put 40,000 rubber ducks into a Conex receptacle, then dump them into the water. First duck down the funnel wins the grand prize.”

Charities benefit

When it comes time to distribute the money back to the clubs, the payout percentage is based on how many tickets the club sells.

“The proceeds from the race are returned to each club in proportion to each club’s ticket sales,” Routh said.

It’s up to each club to determine which charity or charities that benefit.

“Our club, we tend to rotate charities, although some get something every year,” said Routh. “Some groups are given something every third year.”

And there have been instances when charities have come to a Rotary and ask for money during hard times. It’s up to each Rotary’s individual board to decide on helping and how much money to donate.

And the list of organizations that have benefitted from the duck race event is long, with more than 50 of them listed on the tcduckrace.com website.

Recipients include Grace Clinic, American Red Cross, Special Olympics, Junior Achievement, Pet Over Population Prevention, Tri-City Union Gospel Mission, Columbia Industries, Goodwill Industries of the Columbia, Domestic Violence Services, Tri-Cities Cancer Center and Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties.

Duck tickets can be bought an hour before the event, said Routh.

But if you want to get yours between now and then, you can buy them at Grigg’s Department Store and all Tri-City area Ace Hardware stores; Kennewick Ranch & Home; Garrison’s Home Appliance Center; Toyota of Tri-Cities; and all Tri-City area Banner Bank branches.