By Robin GOLDSWORTHY

Verdugo Park in Glendale was busy on Saturday with folks eager to find out if they had “lucky ducks” at the annual KIDS – Kiwanis Incredible Duck Splash.

The splash is organized by the Kiwanis Club of Glendale that oversees the installation of a temporary “lake” on the park grounds provided by the Glendale Fire Dept. Over the course of several heats during the day, 20,000 ducks made their way down the watery course, each duck bottom stamped with an identifying number that correlated with the number on the duck’s adoption papers. Each of the ducks had been adopted during the last several months at an average cost of $5 each with the adoptions facilitated by local non-profits. The non-profits also received 50% of the proceeds of the adoption. The person’s name appearing on the adoption papers corresponding to the first ducks in order of finish at each of the six heats were awarded prizes.

This year’s winners of $500 were Bruce Mauerhan and John LoGrasso. Prizes of $1,000 were awarded to David Campenilli and Jeri Benton-Clark. The “quack pack” winner – a special drawing for those who sold packs of five ducks – was Rustin Kretz. The big winner of the day was awarded a check in the amount of $10,000. That was given to Rick Slaughter.

This year’s event was the 12th annual and according to “duck diva” Toni Beck-Espinoza, who will be taking over the reins as president of the Glendale Kiwanis next year, the club had hoped to reach the $1 million benchmark of money raised.

“This is such a fun, family-friendly event,” said Beck-Espinoza. “We are so grateful to all the volunteers – schools, students, teachers, non-profits – who helped us with this event.”

In addition to the duck races, various school clubs and non-profit organizations had booths set up around the park to keep people occupied between heats.

The beneficiaries of the charitable fundraising event are primarily children and youth in Glendale and neighboring cities throughout Los Angeles County.

At the same time as the KIDS event, the north end of the park was going to the dogs. The annual Glendale K-9s in the Park was an opportunity for the Glendale Police Dept. to show off its canine officers while giving dog owners the chance to bring their pet by for discounted vaccinations and give- aways.

Tahnee Lightfoot, Media Relations representative with GPD, said that the K-9s in the Park event also was an opportunity to highlight another issue dear to the police department – cancer awareness.

“We’re here today to remind people of breast cancer awareness,” said Lightfoot. “We’re selling all types of pink merchandise, include pink patches that our officers are wearing.”

She estimated that the K-9s in the Park event raised over $5,500, which will be donated to the cancer center at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

Visitors also had the chance to see some of the GPD K-9s in action during agility and obedience demonstrations. Currently the GPD has four canine teams – Ofc. Feeley and her partner Jager, Ofc. Rolando and Branko, Ofc. Sholtis and Idol and Ofc. Wilson and Duke. The unit has been active since 2005 and the dogs, all German shepherds, have been trained in a variety of duties including tracking suspects and missing persons, and narcotics detection.

According to its website, the GPD K-9 Unit is funded solely through donations from the public. All costs of the program including training, equipment, food, and veterinary care are paid for through the generosity of the citizens and local business owners of the community. The Glendale Police Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization which has been helping support the GPD K-9 Unit since 2005. All donations made to the K-9 Unit are tax-deductible. Many of the funds raised by the Foundation are directly used for the Glendale Police K-9 Unit.

To learn more, visit www.GlendaleK9.com.

  robin goldsworthy