{"id":989864,"date":"2026-08-08T22:45:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/989864\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T22:45:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:45:19","slug":"rubber-ducks-splash-into-chicago-river-for-annual-fundraiser-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/989864\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubber ducks splash into Chicago River for annual fundraiser"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rubber ducks by the thousands splash into Chicago River for annual Special Olympics fundraiser<\/p>\n

\"DefaultCHICAGO \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

A deluge of 90,000 rubber ducks poured out of a truck on the Columbus Drive bridge and plunged into the Chicago River on Thursday, and then raced at a leisurely pace in the annual Chicago Ducky Derby.<\/p>\n

They floated for around 15 minutes before a winner and runner-up were plucked from the water.<\/p>\n

The annual event, a fundraiser for Special Olympics Illinois, draws thousands of participants.<\/p>\n

Becky Cavanagh, the Ducky Derby ambassador and a 13-year Special Olympics athlete, held up the winning duck to the cheers of crowds packed on both sides of the river.<\/p>\n

Cavanagh said her favorite part about the Special Olympics was “making new friends.” Asked before the race how she felt about picking the winning duck, she cheered. “Woo!”<\/p>\n

Special Olympics Illinois organizes competitions across the state for people with disabilities and special needs. It costs $10 to sponsor a “lone duck,” which will feed an athlete lunch at a competition, and $30 for a “quack pack” of six ducks, which supplies gold medals for a team. The competition has raised more than $480,000.<\/p>\n

The sponsor of the fastest duck wins an SUV, and the runner-up will win $2,500 in cash, said Pete Beale-DelVecchio, president of Special Olympics Illinois.<\/p>\n

“It really is a fantastic day for our athletes,” he said ahead of the race at an area next to the river, where derby attendees posed with inflatable rubber ducks and bopped along to a live DJ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rubber ducks by the thousands splash into Chicago River for annual Special Olympics fundraiser CHICAGO \u2014 A deluge…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":989863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,26073,5386,1818,228370,396948],"class_list":["post-989864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-river","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-mpnd","tag-rubber-ducks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117062320004816524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/989863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}