TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Terre Haute Catholic Charities’ annual Rubber Duck Regatta was held last Tuesday, but some in the community are still finding rubber ducks on the Wabash River.
The event involves releasing 15,000 rubber ducks into the river for a race. It’s a local event many people in the area come out to watch. This year the regatta raised $50,000 for the services Catholic Charities provides.
However, Assistant Agency Director Jennifer Tames said their strategy to contain the ducks did not work as hoped, as so many ducks were lost in the race.
Tames explained that volunteers went out to collect as many ducks as possible that evening, but had to stop because it got too late to do so safely. Tames also assured that they will continue working to collect the remaining ducks.
“Catholic Charities is taking this occurrence very seriously. We’ve had volunteers back out on the river looking for those ducks and collecting them where they can. We have an idea of where there is a larger collection of them and we’ve got people going out later this week to be able to pick those up,” Tames said.
If anyone in the community happens to see any rubber ducks on the river, they’re asked to call Catholic Charities at 812-906-0766 to let them know the location. Anyone that has collected ducks themselves can take them to Catholic Charities’ Foodbank located at 430 N. 14th 1/2 Street between 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
As for future regattas, Tames said that the agency is still assessing what to do.
“This was our sixth year but in all of the prior years I think we’ve done a great job in collecting all of the ducks, but we want to make sure that an event like this doesn’t happen again so we’re starting right now to figure out if this is the right event for us to continue with or if the river is the right place for us to continue with that,” Tames explained.
Tames said that Catholic Charities is grateful for its partnership with the community and looks forward to continuing that partnership in the future.
