Annual Duck Race Raises $35,000

About $35,000 was raised for charity during the annual Great Conejo Duck Race, officials said Monday.

Residents yelled and cheered for 12,000 rubber ducks that slowly made their way from the starting gate at Westlake Lake to the finish line Sunday afternoon, with the first duck floating the 200-yard course in 25 minutes and the last duck completing it in 45 minutes.

J.W. Kurpjuweit, 30, a North Hollywood resident and manager at Ben Bridges Jeweler at The Oaks mall, bought the first-place duck.

“He must have been a stylish duck,” said Kurpjuweit, who will receive a stay at the Ritz Carlton at Laguna Niguel, luggage, wine, glasses, candles, and a haircut and style for his duck’s victory.

Although Kurpjuweit’s duck was the first to finish, it didn’t win him $1 million. If the number of the winning duck matched one that was selected by the organizers before the race, that duck would have made its keeper a millionaire.

Proceeds from the event will benefit Many Mansions, a low-income housing organization, and the Otto Stoll Children’s Fund, a scholarship foundation for children of low-income families.

More than 4,000 onlookers showed up for the event, exceeding last year’s total of 2,500.

As the race began, ducks were released from a holding pen and floated down the course outlined by oil-containment booms--V-shaped plastic flotation devices. The booms are used by the Coast Guard in an oil spill.

The 3-inch ducks raced to the theme song from “Chariots of Fire.” At the end of the course was a tube the ducks swam through. Nearby, a boatload of judges recorded the numbers of the ducks as they came down the tube.

Race judges were Thousand Oaks Mayor Dennis Gillette, Thousand Oaks Councilman Andy Fox, Ventura County Supervisor Frank Schillo, Conejo Valley Unified School District Supt. Jerry Gross and Westlake Village Mayor Iraj Broomand.