The ducks can't race, so kids help out
A family of real ducks was swimming and bobbing for food Saturday afternoon on the Fox River while their rubber cousins were raising money elsewhere.
Because the Fox River is swollen from recent heavy rains, the rubber ducks kept off the river but still worked hard for the Elgin Boys and Girls Club's annual Biggers Chevrolet Fox Valley Duck Race.
The 15,000 rubber ducks were piled on top of the fountains in Elgin's Festival Park, where 20 children got soaked as they ran out among the fountains to collect one of the ducks at random. The adoptive owner of each duck they picked won a prize.
"It's unfortunate because the neat thing about the event is watching all the ducks go down the river," said Tim Williams, a Boys and Girls Club board member and duck race volunteer.
But the kids had fun anyway, dodging the fountains and climbing through the hill of ducks to select the lucky winners as the sunglasses-clad ducks shot up on the tall streams of water.
Lyyn Alsip of Elgin won the grand prize, a 2007 Chevy Aveo. The other winners were: Tom Kastner of Schaumburg; Kevin Manisco of South Elgin; and John Fatzer, George Smego, Judy Pietras, Marie Pederson, the Alltons, Mark Nunez and Heather Cortez, all of Elgin.
The Finks of Carpentersville wore duck necklaces as they watched the event, signifying that they bought a flock of ducks this year for $100.
"They're building a new facility, so this will help," Janet Fink said.
The duck race is a major fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club, which offers educational and recreational programs to Elgin kids, many of them from low-income households.
Saturday's event raised an estimated $70,000 for the Boys and Girls Club.
The ninth annual event added a new wrinkle this year: the Duckapalooza Music Festival.
"This is the biggest volunteer-based event we've had," Boys and Girls Club Executive Director Rose Reinert-Allen said.
In the afternoon, rockers in Elgin's Festival Park shredded and soloed their way to victory during the Battle of the Bands. The festival continued into the late evening with a lineup of five bands.