Erin Brown, of Cortland, and her duck “Yellow” won the $2,500 grand prize at the 25th annual Corn-Ducky Derby on Saturday at Dry Creek at Suggett Park.
The top-20 finishers each received a cash prize.
The $100 prize winners were:
- Mike Pitcher, of Cortland, “Lance”
- Cheryl Smith, of Cortland, “Schmuk”
- Cyndy Young, of Cortland, “Fifty Cents”
- Erik Bitterbaum, of Cortland, “Erik”
- Clint Brooks, of Homer, “Michelle”
- Camryn Calabro, of Cortland, “Cam”
- Terry Morse, of Homer, “Buttercup”
- Ann Marie Mooney, of Homer, “Pan”
- Andrew Rankin, of Cortland, “Lucky 9”
The $50 prize winners were:
- Michele Parish, of Groton, “Lylah”
- “Dudgeon”
- Rian Little, of Rowe, “McDonough”
- American Cancer Society
- C. Dyer, “Dyer”
The $25 prize winners were:
- Ginny Jones, of Cortland, “Dottie”
- Chopper Payne, of Cortland, “Brian”
- Maeve Tinker, “Elizabeth”
- Emma R. Goyette, of Groton, “Lola”
- Pete Adams, of Cortland, “Chanlene”
Saturday’s event brought in 6,709 rubber ducks, breaking 2018’s record by 231 (6,478).
“We painted the creek yellow,” said Doug Gilbert, chairman of the event, who also said the derby raked in more than $25,000.
Gilbert said the amount of ducks that swam across the creek that day made him “speechless,” adding it was “unbelievable to see considering” the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If someone told me we’d have that many ducks (on Saturday), I’d think that person was lying,” he said.
Gilbert and the Corn-Ducky Derby’s allocation committee will now wait for grant applications to be submitted before they choose which organization, or multiple organizations, will receive a grant.
The committee is accepting applications until June 1, Gilbert said.
The event has distributed over $355,000 to the Cortland area since 2004, the year they started keeping records.
For more information or questions, go to www.cornduckyderby.org or the CornDucky Derby Facebook page.
