{"id":30515,"date":"2026-08-07T01:45:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30515"},"modified":"2026-08-07T01:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:45:25","slug":"rubber-ducks-by-the-thousands-splash-into-chicago-river-for-annual-special-olympics-fundraiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30515","title":{"rendered":"Rubber ducks by the thousands splash into Chicago River for annual Special Olympics fundraiser"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/06\/Chicago_Rubber_Duck_Race_9_167_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>CHICAGO \u2014 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<p>They floated for around 15 minutes before a winner and runner-up were plucked from the water.<\/p>\n<p>The annual event, a fundraiser for Special Olympics Illinois, draws thousands of participants.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>Cavanagh said her favorite part about the Special Olympics was \u201cmaking new friends.\u201d Asked before the race how she felt about picking the winning duck, she cheered. \u201cWoo!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Special Olympics Illinois organizes competitions across the state for people with disabilities and special needs. It costs $10 to sponsor a \u201clone duck,\u201d which will feed an athlete lunch at a competition, and $30 for a \u201cquack pack\u201d of six ducks, which supplies gold medals for a team. The competition has raised more than $480,000.<\/p>\n<p>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<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt really is a fantastic day for our athletes,\u201d 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<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO \u2014 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. They floated for around 15 minutes before a winner and runner-up were plucked from the water&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/06\/Chicago_Rubber_Duck_Race_9_167_c0-168-4032-2520_s1200x700.jpg?40c4b781ecafb383d3a5d5a5a9ef957696ebe5c8","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}