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Maple Ridge 4-H club raises more than $1,000 at Rotary Duck Race after last ditch online plea

The Otter 4-H Llama Club had only sold six tickets until the day before the draw.
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The Otter Llama 4-H Club had llamas on display for Canada Day in Maple Ridge. (Colleen Flanagan/The News)

A day before the deadline, only six tickets had been bought for the Rotary Duck Race in support of the Otter Llama 4-H Club.

So, club member Pascale Shaw, decided to throw up a plea online to try to drum up some last minute support.

And her plea worked, with 43 tickets sold in a few hours, to bring their total to 49 tickets.

“Our club will now receive $1,180,” said Shaw elatedly.

Maple Ridge resident Lesley Shebib saw the online plea and decided to purchase tickets the day of the draw, just before cutoff. She ended up purchasing the winning ticket, taking home $15,000.

This year a little more than $28,000 in tickets were sold for the Rotary Duck Race, including $4,600 sold by the two local rotary clubs, said Ineke Boekhorst, co-chair of the race.

The Haney Neptunes Aquatic Club raised the most for their organization – $5,660, 80 per cent of their ticket sales.

Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club raised $1,404 for their club and the Ridge Meadows Seniors Society raised $1,384.

Shaw, who has been involved with the Otter Llama 4-H Club since her daughter was 11-years-old, said the children work so hard with their animals.

Eight years later, Shaw’s daughter is no longer with the club, but Shaw is still involved because she loves the program so much.

She noted that the Rotary Duck Race is their club’s biggest fundraiser, but once the race went virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fundraising became more difficult.

The club has attended various events across the region including: the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Country Fest; Amsterdam Greenhouse Day; Canada Day; a local Harvest night where they made rooster shaped meringue; two Otter Coop education days; and a variety of other events.

RELATED: Walk with a Llama this summer in Pitt Meadows

ALSO: 4-H’rs make plea to allow a few chickens in Maple Ridge backyards

At one point the club also included poulty. But when two of their members lost their chickens due to city bylaws around owning backyard chickens, they decided to focus entirely on llamas.

The Rotary Duck Race, before the COVID-19 pandemic, was held in the South Alouette River, at Maple Ridge Park, where hundreds of rubber ducks were unleashed to float their way down stream to a finish line.

Organizers are hoping that the event will be held, once again, in person, next year.

The fundraiser is a way for Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows youth and seniors’ groups to raise money for their annual needs.

Shaw said in the past fundraising has gone towards: a trailer to transport the llamas; and wood and materials and paint to make obstacles and jumps for the animals.


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Colleen Flanagan

About the Author: Colleen Flanagan

I got my start with Black Press Media in 2003 as a photojournalist.
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