Sigma Nu races ducks for a good cause

The rubber duckies have escaped the bathtub and are preparing to head down San Luis Creek.
Sigma Nu’s first annual Ducky-Derby will be held on Saturday, Nov. 1 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in San Luis Creek at Mission Plaza.
The Ducky-Derby will feature music, food, a silent auction and of course a rubber ducky race.
The top 15 ducks to cross the finish line will receive prizes from the event sponsors: Moondoggies, Vieni Vai, popchips, Sartori Pearls, Tennis Warehouse, Country Culture Yogurt and Pacific Beverage.
The owner of the lucky ducky that wins first place will receive a 42″ flat screen TV.
Political science junior, cancer survivor, and Ducky-Derby co-chair, Alex Cunny got the idea for the race from his hometown of Napa, which used to have a similar race.
“I started thinking about how much money we could make off of it, because the ducks are so cheap, and it just kind of snowballed from there,” Cunny said.
The cause is near to his heart as he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 16.
“I started working with Relay For Life and that really inspired me to get more involved and think a little bit more out of the box,” he said. “I also get a scholarship from the American Cancer Society so I definitely felt like it was my duty to give back and definitely bring something new.”
Planning for the event started in July.
“Sigma Nu has a national convention every two years and we came back from it and were like, ‘We really need to do something for big philanthropy to raise money for an organization,'” said Ducky-Derby co-chair and architecture senior Derrick Homer.
After the initial idea was created, they worked on graphics for fliers and logistics behind the race. One important test was to see whether all 3,000 rubber ducks could float down the creek at the same time. “We’ve gone out and we’ve actually tested it a couple times,” Homer said.
“There was quite a bit of people just actually coming out just to watch that,” Cunny said.
Sigma Nu plans on having a Ducky-Derby every year from now on. With all the plans in place Cunny said he hopes this event will become Sigma Nu’s flagship philanthropy.
“We are definitely planning on keeping and reusing the ducks and continuing to put it on every year. It makes it easier when it is successful the first year and then everybody wants to keep doing it,” Homer said.
Other members of Sigma Nu have been helping out too, specifically with the sales aspect of the event.
“We have had a lot of help especially from our new pledge class selling ducks,” Cunny said.
The ducks have been on sale during UU hour, outside of Scolari’s, at Farmer’s Market and online. However, it is not too late to buy ducks for the race. They will be accepting donations up until the actual contest.
Each duck costs $5 with proceeds going to Relay For Life which benefits the American Cancer Society.
“We are hoping on Saturday afternoon we are going to draw a lot of the downtown crowd in and it is just going to be a fun event. You don’t have to commit an entire day you can just come out for a little while,” Cunny said.
If that isn’t good enough Homer asks, “When else are you going to see maybe 3,000 ducks floating down San Luis Creek?”