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Patriots Park defines the border between Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, but this Saturday, April 30th, it also becomes the scene of an annual event that attracts a multitude of folks seeking fun, excitement and more. The 15th annual combined Rotary Club of the Tarrytowns’ Duck Derby and the Family YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day will take place at the park, opening officially at 11:00 a.m.
As many as 2,000 “adopted,” little rubber ducks will be zipping down Andre Brook, distributed in six Derby race heats beginning at 11:15 a.m. Winners of each race receive $100, and a chance to compete in the grand final race for a $1,500 prize.
Ducky adoptions are available through Wednesday at the Rotary website, www.tarrytownrotary.org/ as well as at the park on Saturday. Single duck adoptions cost $10, while a “Six-Quack” is $50 and the 13 ducks, found in a “Tub of Ducks,” cost $100.
On hand to keep the duckies moving swiftly down Andre Brook will be Tarrytown’s Fire Department Hope Hose Company and Conqueror Consolidated Engine Company. They have devised the system whereby a guillotine they have engineered holds back the brook water until each race starts. Water power pumped from the fire truck gives the ducks an extra boost.
While Andre Brook will be the focus of the duck races, the Family YMCA will be hosting a series of fun rides, games, and dances, along with music throughout the day. Among the variety of amusements will be Y potato sack races, a Y archery event, with plastic arrows, the Y Dance Party, Y Yarn Art, and Y giveaways.
In order to enjoy these varied events, youngsters must display a Y bracelet, which can be purchased for $10 at the YMCA table near the park’s entrance on Route 9, close to the playground, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Food is on the agenda as well, with several vendors offering their fare.
A variety of organizations will also be on hand to offer information, craft demonstrations and more at booths and tables set up around the park. The Y’s Associate Executive Director Lesa Dalton notes that some are new to the event. These include the Village of Tarrytown’s Tree Commission, which will join with Con Edison to hand out free trees to attendees. The Westchester County Department of Emergency Services will feature life-saving demonstrations and have giveaways. TaSH, the community farmer’s market will also be represented.
TEAC, the Tarrytown Environmental Advisory Council, will be hosting a table, where it will both demonstrate and have children make seed balls for birds using feeders made from used paper towel rolls, show ways to plant seedlings and discuss the importance of pollinators. TEAC will also lead a “parade” around the park at 2:15 p.m.
The Hudson Independent, a long-standing presence at the event, will offer a free raffle drawing with three prizes: two Yankee ballgame tickets, worth $150 each, for both the first and second place drawing winners, and local restaurant certificates valued at $70 for the third-place drawing winner.
Wearing their traditional oversized duck costumes, Rotary members Mimi Godwin and JoAnne Murray will be roaming the park, offering greetings, advice and answers to questions as they have since the first collaborative event 15 years ago. It was Godwin, who came up with the Derby idea, and she and Murray organized and facilitated its beginning and continuing existence. The Rotary collaborated with the Y’s existing Healthy Kids Day to make it a dual event.
The Y will be hosting about 25 children from Irvington’s Abbott House as guests. As the Y’s Dalton explains, “Abbott House children have been attending Healthy Kids Day for the past several years, and it is always such a joy for us to give them a day of play!” Abbott House’s mission is to “help children and adolescents with complex problems made worse by the overwhelming environments. Our goal is to support and strengthen families to keep them together.” As Dalton notes, “Abbott House provides care, education and housing to refugee children until they can be reunited with their families.“
Funds raised by the Rotary and the YMCA, both non-profits, are directed back to the community in the form of grants, scholarships and other charitable endeavors. The events on Saturday are important sources of funding for both groups, with the Rotary describing the Derby as its major annual funding resource.
Some thirty local organizations, businesses and individuals support the Rotary in presenting the Derby, with Northwell Health’s Phelps Hospital and Kendal on Hudson as the two major “presenting sponsors.”
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