32nd annual Rubber Ducky Festival to begin Monday, Aug. 12

BELLAIRE – It's that time of year again – time to “duck” into Bellaire, and let the “quackin'" begin, when the little yellow ducks will once again invade the village, with the 32nd annual Rubber Ducky Festival from Monday, Aug. 12 through Saturday, Aug. 17.

Held by the Bellaire Chamber of Commerce, this year's festival is sponsored by Bellaire Family Health Center and Fischer Insurance.

This year’s festival is once again part of Bellaire’s 12 Days of Summer Celebration, which begins on Thursday, Aug. 8 and runs through the final event of the festivities – the annual Rubber Ducky Race – on Saturday, Aug 17.

The full week of celebration officially begins on Monday, Aug. 12 with a performance by the Bay Area Big Band in the gazebo area of the Area Seniors, Inc. property behind the Antrim County Commission on Aging office on Cayuga Street. Scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., the band performance promises a full evening of entertainment for all who attend. A freewill offering will be accepted to benefit the Bay Area Music Foundation, which supports local young musicians, and those attending should being a lawn chair and anything they would like to eat or drink.

For additional information on the Bay Area Big Band or the Bay Area Music Foundation, visit: bayareamusicfoundation.org.

On Wednesday, Aug. 14, Paddle Antrim will sponsor the Bellaire Area Evening Paddle with a leisurely hour of paddling on Bellaire's Intermediate River, departing from Bellaire's Richardi Park at 7 p.m. There is no charge for this event.

Thursday, Aug. 16 will be a big day for the Village of Bellaire, with the traditional Senior Picnic and Community Appreciation Day, held behind the Antrim County Commission On Aging, starting at 10 a.m. and the COA’s Car Show, featuring a variety of classic cars, trucks and other motorized vehicles owned by residents from throughout the area.

Also on Thursday, Aug. 16 will be the annual Sidewalk Sales downtown and Friends of the Bellaire Library annual Book Sale from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., both of which will continue on Friday, Aug. 16.

The Grass River Natural Area will also hold its "Riverfest" and auction at Summit Village of Shanty Creek Resort. For more information on this event, visit grassriver.org

On Friday, Aug. 16, Community In Action will sponsor its annual Corn Hole Tournament on Broad Street during the free performance of area entertainer Dominic Fortuna.  All proceeds from the corn hole tournament will benefit CIA programs, which work to improve secondary student graduation rates.

Concluding Friday evening will be the 2018 Duck & Glow 5K Run/Walk and 1 Mile Kiddie Dash, which begins at 8:30 p.m. Proceeds from the run benefit the Bellaire High School cross country team.

The Bellaire Historical Museum will be open and free to the public from 1-3 p.m.

The biggest day of the annual festival on Saturday, Aug. 17, will kick off with an arts and craft show featuring more than 50 vendors, a visit from “Smokey the Bear,” sidewalk and library book sales, kid’s “Ducking Park” with games for all ages, bounce houses and slides, face painting, and a free children’s movie.

Bellaire's largest parade of the year will start at 3 p.m., when dozens of floats, marching bands, and area first responders will escort a front-end loader full of rubber duckies to the Intermediate River bridge. The quarter-mile race, which begins when 2,000 bathtub duckies will be dumped out of the loader into the Intermediate River, is the culmination of the popular festival, one of the Chamber’s biggest fundraisers of the year.

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