ArRyhanna William’s

8th grade, along with high school students, stand in a formation and play their instruments for the pregame show at Bowen-Glaze stadium on September 8th.

On August 21-September 15, 2023 band, choir, and orchestra started their annual duck race fundraiser. This fundraiser has been going on for twenty eight years and is still on track to do it in the future. When all of the money is in, they take the number of ducks that were sold and pour them into the Shawnee Lake, and race them to the finish line. Winners of the duck race received prizes such as a car, expensive jewelry, gift cards, and more! This year, however, is a little bit different as they decided to do the race all online with a random selector. This caught some people off guard, as when they did it in person, people were able to come watch the race and it was a fun thing to get people out of their houses.

Dylan Donnely, the highest 8th grade seller, and Tomas Lambotte, the Choir teacher, share their opinions on the duck race, how they felt about it, and the competitive part of it. When asking Donnelly about how he reacted and felt once figuring out he was the highest 8th grade seller, he said, “I got really happy, because I get to pie Mrs. Lambotte in the face, and it looked really cool to do last year, so I wanted to do it this year.” 

When asked about the loss, Lambotte said, “I was slightly bummed, but it’s a friendly competition. I am glad that the duck trophy will be in the building again this year, no matter who is winning it.”

As the top 8th grade seller, Donnelly was proud of himself for the large amount of ducks he sold. “It gave a lot of money to my trip to Six Flags, so I don’t have to make that,” When Donnelly talked about his sales strategy, he said. “Just asking my family, and having my mom say stuff and asking her co-workers and neighbors,” Donelly stated, once asked what his strategy was to sellings all those ducks.

Students are raising money for the Six flags and Worlds Of Fun trips in May. Myra Gray, a band student, was the highest seller among the seventh graders. She will be one of the students, along with Donnelly, to pie Mrs. Lambotte at the Assembly on October 27th.

Gray stated, “I didn’t expect to be the highest seller, I honestly was just trying to sell to get enough money for the Worlds of Fun trip.” Many people tried to sell a lot to be able to pie Mrs. Lambotte, Mr. Lambotte, and Mrs. McLeland, but only a couple of students came out on top.

“I told My family about the fundraiser and they started posting it on Facebook and everything,” Gray said. Mrs. Lambotte has a lot of students and was really excited for the fundraiser this year, because more students means more opportunities for selling. “Having more students is a good strategy. It works most of the time,” says Lambotte. 

This was one of the few fundraisers that the music students do to raise money. This year was a great success and many people hope to continue it in following years. A portion of the funds are also donated to the Girls and Boys Club of Topeka.