July 18, 2026

In 1992 a container ship lost a container full of bathtub toys.  The container broke open and 28,000 “Friedly Floaties” broke loose and started the more than 6,000 mile circuit of the Subarctic Pacific Gyre.  Because of the way tides and wind work many washed up on Sitka’s beaches.  Three years later a batch that escaped grounding the first round washed up on Sitka’s beaches.  Three years after that…   The Floaties included yellow duckies.  That was 36 years ago.

Before the seaborne rubber duckies (ok they’re really plastic) washed up in Sitka, yellow duckies floated down Sitka’s streams toward the sea.  The Sitka Rotary Duck Race has been going on for more than 40 years.  Buy a ticket and sponsor one of Three thousand numbered ducks that get dumped into Granite Creek.  Each year Rotary members audit the ducks, making sure each number is accounted for.  Then Dirk and his forklift place a contraption made by Dan Jones on the Granite Creek Bridge and fill it with thousands of yellow bathtub toys.

Duck wranglers stand by waiting to push the bath tub toys along.

At the signal a trap door opens and the yellow duckies cascade into the river to start their journeys toward the sea.  They never make it because yellow bathtub duckies would be an invasive species.

But on their way Duck Wranglers push them along with rakes to make sure none get hung up on rocks or branches.  They all must make it to the temporary dam set up across the mouth of the river.   

A small opening allows ducks to pop out to be captured and hailed as winners. 

A large crowd gathers to cheer on their duck, although they can’t tell which one is theirs.

Once the winning ducks are chosen Rotary members scoop up the remaining ducks and put them into totes to be audited before the next race. 

But several “lucky ducks” get plucked from their bin as random winners.  The last duck floats down and gets the “red lantern” award for it’s sponsor. The winning duck numbers get cross checked against a master list, the yellow ticket stub is pulled out from the numbered tickets, matched with the number and winners announced.

Usually, the race is held on July 4^th but there is so much else going on that Rotary moved to July 18 to draw a bigger crowd and give the club more time to sell tickets.  All proceeds go to Sitka nonprofit and civic organizations, and have for four decades, helping to make Sitka a better place for all of us.

If you look at this on a browser you can watch this 4 minute video showing the action. If you get this by Email you will need to bring it up on a browser.