Rubber duckie, you’re the one
Hundreds of rubber duckies were dumped into Trepanier Creek in Peachland on Saturday in an annual fundraiser that supports the preservation of bat habitat.
Despite the best efforts of fishermen and boaters, a few of the almost 700 rubber duckies used in a fundraiser bobbed out to sea Saturday. Well, Okanagan Lake, anyway. “I found one of the ducks, upside down and caught in seaweed,” Doris Muhs, an organizer of the fifth annual Rubber Ducky Race said Sunday, adding with a laugh: “I risked my life to save that duck.”
The numbered ducks, sold in advance for $5 apiece, were dumped en masse into Trepanier Creek to see which one would first enter Okanagan Lake about 300 metres distant.
The owner of the numbered duck won $900, and there were several subsidiary prizes.
At the mouth of the creek, to the amusement of many onlookers, fishermen with nets stopped most of the ducks from entering the lake.
People aboard boats scooped up any that did elude the nets.
The crowd-pleasing event is a fundraiser for the Bat Education and Ecological Protection Society. It was expected to raise about $2,500, with the money going toward the purchase of more cameras to be installed in an old schoolhouse on Beach Avenue.
The building, now used as a visitor information centre and art gallery, is believed to house one of the biggest colonies of bats in British Columbia.
The addition of more cameras will allow for remote viewing of the colony without disturbing the bats. Bats are important for the environment because they eat mosquitoes and other insects, says Darlene Hartford, the society president.