By Mary O’KEEFE

It was all about the ducks on Saturday as the Glendale Kiwanis Club, with help from the Glendale Fire Department, transformed Verdugo Park into Lake Glendale and the day was filled with races. Anticipation would build at the beginning of each heat as a skip loader scooped up thousands of little rubber ducks and dumped them into the Kiwanis made lake.

As the pliable fowl raced down the fire department aided waterfall toward the lake little kids couldn’t help but put their hands in the water. Although the annual event is a fund raiser it is really a community event. Ducks are adopted at $5 each in the name of a local non-profit organization. The Kiwanis then share the funds raised with that organization.

“We sold a little under this year. We sold about 17,000 this year as opposed to 20,000 last year,” said Rik Middleton, Kiwanis Incredible Duck Splash chair. Crescenta Valley High School band partnered with the Kiwanis, providing music to race ducks by. Glendale police, fire and Community Emergency Response Team members were also at the park with demonstrations for adults and kids.

Six-year-old Ethan Sanders learned how a lever worked as Glendale CERT coordinator Eric Indermill helped demonstrate the way first responders rescue trapped victims. Ethan found that with the help of a lever he could lift the platform his father Jerry was standing on and pull the rescue dummy out to safety.