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Health & Fitness

The Great Duck Race - a Fun Event for Great Causes

There’s more to Westport Sunrise Rotary’s Fifth Annual Great Duck Race than just watching a raft of small yellow plastic ducks bobbing down the Saugatuck River.

Especially if you own the ticket with the number of the winning duck - the one that earns you a $5,000 debit card. Or the second place ticket with its $1,000 card, even any of the next eight to come in and give their lucky owners owners $500 each.

“By purchasing a duck for $20, you help support 40 Westport, Norwalk and Bridgeport charities, as well as several international aid programs,” said Steve Violette, Sunrise Rotary’s president and the event chair.

So come on out to Parker Harding Plaza on June 22 - festivities begin at 11:00, the race goes off a bit at 2:00. The Great Duck Race is a family day, there’ll be lots of activities for children along with things for adults to see and do.

Even more, the Great Duck Race helps you help your community.

Rotary is about SERVICE ABOVE SELF.

Sunrise Rotarians are your neighbors, coming together every Friday at BobbyQ’s on Main Street to enjoy high spirited early morning camaraderie, breakfast and a timely speaker.

They’re also community volunteers - running food drives, serving meals at the Gillespie Center, helping out at the Library Book Sale, even cleaning up near Exit 17.

Money raised through the Great Duck Race and their October Wine Tasting is donated to Westport charities including Homes With Hope, CLASP, Elder House, Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care and Green Village Initiative.

Elsewhere, Sunrise supports Isaiah 61:1, a Bridgeport halfway house that assists adults recently released from prison to readjust; Mercy Learning Center, a Bridgeport organization that teaches English and “urban survival skills” to recent immigrants; and Smart Kids With Learning Disabilities, which supports parents of LD and ADD children.

And Sunrise donated the 3D printer that's opened up whole new hands-on programs at the Library and another to Bridge Academy, a Bridgeport charter school where Sunrise members volunteer.

What’s the common thread? Sunrise Rotary adds more than money. Its members are active in every one of its charities - as volunteers helping deliver services, as leaders and as board members.

And this giving program is supplemented by the Great Duck Race's business sponsors - Westport Downtown Merchants Association; Castlekeep Investment Advisors; Fairfield County Bank; Melissa & Doug; A. J. Penna & Son; Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C.; Black Duck Café; iFloat; Down Under; Westport Magazine; Our Town Crier; Bluewater Home Builders, LLC; Green Village Initiative; KMS Partners, LLC; Honda of Westport; RFH Company; The Russell Agency; Servicemaster Clean; Stew Leonard III Children’s Charities; Bridgeport Sound Tigers; Tina Dragone; Total Marine; Whole Foods Market Westport; and Eric H. Zielinski & Co., LLC.

Tickets may be purchased at Fairfield County Bank, 20 Compo Rd. So. (corner of Post Rd.), Westport; TD Bank, 185 Main Street, Westport; Black Duck Café, 605 Riverside Ave., Westport; The Russell Agency, 317 Pequot Ave., Southport; or from any Westport Sunrise Rotary member.

To learn more about the Great Duck Race, please visit: www.greatduckrace.org.

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