PORT ANGELES — Hundreds enjoyed a sunny, windless Sunday afternoon with ideal rising tides to witness a record-smashing 28,264 numbered rubber ducks race down a paper mill canal.

The 14th annual Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby raised about $120,000, said Bruce Skinner, executive director of the co-sponsoring Olympic Medical Center Foundation.

Duck sales this year beat the feathers off last year’s sales by 6,216 tickets.

“The main reason is there are a lot more people volunteering this year, and they are selling more than ever,” Skinner said of the sales force of about 450 who sold ducks for $5 each.

Corporate “Very Important Ducks” were sold for $500, $250 and $125 apiece.

Corporate VID sales came to 199 compared with 102 in 2002, said Skinner.

The duck’s share of the funds raised goes to Olympic Medical Center Foundation — and about $5,000 to the Sequim Rotary Club and Forks-based Soroptimists International of the Olympic Rainforest, Skinner said.

—————-

The rest of the story appears in the Monday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE, above, to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.