ESTEVAN — One lucky rubber duck won the Estevan Humane Society's derby in 42 minutes, making Bryan Milford $15,000 richer Sunday afternoon. The same amount was raised for the shelter this year through the sale of 3,000 rubber duck tickets for the 200-foot race on the Souris River.
The annual fundraiser was sold out Friday before the race, and the organizers were indeed happy with the results, especially since they only had three weeks to distribute the tickets.
"We sold out again a couple days before the duck derby, so we can't complain. But it might be hinting and telling us that we need to go bigger, again, because we seem to always have the demand," said Estevan Humane Society president Tayja Lakusta.
Last year the shelter grew the fundraiser from 2,000 to 3,000 tickets, which meant a raise from $10,000 to $15,000 in winnings and funds for the humane society.
While at some point it seemed that sales were going a bit slow this year and board members were getting worried, soon the community kicked into gear and ensured a successful fundraiser. Local businesses were helping with selling tickets alongside the 10 board members. People could also purchase them online, which Lauksta believes also helped with sales.
All money raised through the duck derby is to be used towards the shelter's regular operations.
They currently have a "good" number of cats, Lakusta said, but have a lot of kittens and more are coming up. They are also at full capacity for dogs and will also have puppies available for adoption this fall. Some of the shelter dogs were at the park to socialize and visit with guests.
Many people joined the event to watch the race, enjoy an outdoor lunch, have some ice cream and watch kids having fun at the bouncy castle and with glitter tattoos.
"We'd like to thank everyone for their continued support and for coming out to watch our ducks rush to the finish line," Lakusta said with a laugh.
The shelter is also gearing up for major renovations. Earlier, they received estate donations and are in talks with another possible donor. This support will allow them to do much-needed upgrades. They are currently working on obtaining permits and securing contractors.
"We're planning to do the major upgrade in the spring," Lakusta said. "We're going to try to get animals out because we're going to try to do it room by room to minimize the uprooting of everybody. We'll try to get them out on foster, get their room redone, bring them back, move. It'll be a lot of shuffling and moving.
"All the renovations are done because we've had extremely generous donors step up and give us larger sums of money that we can put away and do these upgrades that are so necessary for us with the way we seem to be growing."
Next year will be Estevan Humane Society's 30th year since being established. Keep an eye on the Estevan Mercury and our provincial news hub SaskToday.ca for more about how the local shelter is to celebrate its years of serving the community's needs.
For animals available for adoption, check out the Estevan Humane Society Facebook page and their website at estevanhumanesociety.ca.
