Duck race postponed until 2021

Ducks wait to race down the lazy river at Holiday Springs Water Park in Texarkana, Ark. on Friday, August 19, 2016. The duck race is a fundraiser for CHRISTUS St. Michael's electrophysiology Lab. Donors get a number for each donation, and if the corresponding duck crosses the finish line first, wins.
Ducks wait to race down the lazy river at Holiday Springs Water Park in Texarkana, Ark. on Friday, August 19, 2016. The duck race is a fundraiser for CHRISTUS St. Michael's electrophysiology Lab. Donors get a number for each donation, and if the corresponding duck crosses the finish line first, wins.

TEXARKANA, Texas - CHRISTUS St. Michael Foundation has canceled its popular Duck Race fundraiser this year owing to continuing COVID-19 concerns.

Foundation Executive Director Susan Landreaux said Thursday that the annual Duck Race won't be held this year as it has in the last 30 years, but will tentatively be held in mid-to-late August 2021.

The fundraiser, which started Nov. 6, 1990, at the Wright Patman spillway, has featured between 10,000 and 12,000 floating ducks for $5 a piece with all proceeds going to the foundation.

The race stayed at the spillway between 1990 and 2009 before being moved to the Spring Lake Park's water pond for three years.

Thereafter, the race has been held at Holiday Springs Water Park in Texarkana, Arkansas, for the last seven years.

The first year's fundraiser proceeds paid for the construction of CHRISTUS St. Michael's Health Systems' Pediatric Center, while other annual proceeds have helped pay for critical and updated medical equipment and improvements in the system's cancer center and cardiovascular services.

"One of the more critical areas these fundraisers have helped us with is staying on point with ever-improving medical technology," Landreaux said.

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