The Five Buck a duck race
The annual Five Buck a Duck race is Rotary Club of Gisborne West's key annual fundraiser for the Life Education Trust. The club helped establish the Life Education Trust Mobile Classroom and provides ongoing assistance with running costs and the purchase of a new mobile classroom.
The event has continued to be very successful year after year and the community has responded well to the efforts of the club members who embark on an intense ticket seeling drive towards the end of summer. The event also draws big crowds and prizes are often given away on the spot.
The Big Buck Duck Race
In 2013, the Duck Race saw the launch of a new category in addition to the regular ticketed yellow ducks. This category encouraged the involvement of corporates, with custom coloured duck decoys that reflected their sponsors, complete with a mast that sported the logo of the sponsor. The corporate ducks were separately graded, with the winner being awarded a trophy. In 2015, that trophy went to Sean Shivnan Pharmacy and the prize included a Mystery Weekend for two. A sponsors evening was held on April 30, 2015 and the Club acknowledged the support of over a 100 sponsors and President Peter Dawson presented Life Education Trust with a cheque for $5000 and Treasurer John Logan outlined the plan for expenditure of the fund raised.