03/09/2024
Duck race makes £1,500 for charities
Large crowds visiting the Knighton Park annual show lined the banks of the brook to watch as nearly 1,000 plastic ducks floated down The Washbrook in the first duck race held there by Rotary club members.
With donations still being received, the amount raised for charity is not yet known, but it is certain to be more than £1,594. Expenditure is limited to cash prizes totalling £165 – two first prizes of £50 each (tickets 215 and 1215), two second prizes (tickets 147 and 1147) of £25 each, and one third prize of £15 (ticket 618).
At least 10 per cent of the profit will go to End Polio Now. Since Rotary started its campaign four decades ago, we have cut the number of years cases a year from 360,000 to just 17 in Afghanistan and 16 in Pakistan in 2024.
On the day of the duck race, we learned that because there has been a case of polio in Gaza attempts will soon be made to vaccinate tens of thousands of children there. Since 1988 Rotary and others have immunised 2.5 BILLION children. Rotary is determined to carry on until, like Smallpox, there are no more new cases in the world.
Another 10 per cent, at least, will go to the Friends of Knighton Park, a group of volunteers who give up hundreds of person-hour to maintain and improve their local park. The group has been incredibly welcoming and helpful to Rotary since we first raised the idea of holding a duck race in the park on the day of their show.
The Rotary club which led the duck race project is Leicester De Montfort. President Richard Spicer chose RAFT (formerly Homes for Good) and Leicester South Foodbank to benefit from the event.
Richard was busy on the day helping to put up a demarcation tape to keep people safe from falling in the fast-flowing brook and by selling tickets. He expressed his thanks to the Friends and to all who supported the event.
The race started when Chris Knight, the lead Rotarian for 89 clubs in the east Midlands, emptied a one-tonne builder’s bag full of yellow plastic ducks into the brook. Chris and his wife Jayne, both members of Ashby Castle Rotary Club, also sold tickets to visitors to the Friends of Knighton Park show.
Race organiser Jim Matthews, of Bradgate Rotary Club, thanked members of the local Air Training Cadet Squadron who helped keep show visitors safe by stewarding the bank of the brook.
Jim said: “On a trial run in April, I fell into the brook and got a deep cut in my elbow. Fortunately, I did not get an infection. The bed of the brook is very, very slippery and uneven and in places surprisingly deep. On Sunday as I waded, waist deep, at the end of the race I was able to shout up to families on the bridge and bank to point out just how dangerous the brook can be.
“I am very pleased that everything went well and without incident. I’m really grateful for the encouragement and support given to the Rotary clubs by Gary MacMillan and his team at the city parks department, to Tony Salmon and all the Friends of Knighton Park volunteers and – of course – to everyone who bought tickets for the race and who made donations for the very good causes we are supporting.”
