Duck Season!!

Milo the Duck represents the Million Dollar Duck Race that takes place every year in New York City in order to support Special Olympics New York. Being a sponsor, you adopt one of up to 25,000 rubber duckies that get released into the East River that race from the Brooklyn Bridge to South Street Seaport.

This year it takes place on August 6 and Milo the Duck wanted everyone to know. So much so that I ended up with 23 emails from him this Saturday telling me so. Unfortunately for Milo, Yahoo’s Spam Filter jumped all over it after about the tenth message like a rabid wolverine and started filtering them to the Spam folder. I didn’t want the family of emails to be split up, so I sent what was left in the Inbox over to the Spam folder.

I responded to them in a “passive-aggressive note” kind of way in hopes of evoking a response. I was curious if this special event would be swept under the carpet to save face or if some kind of formal announcement and apology would come forth.

I received a response from an Elizabeth Forrest stating “there was a malfunction at the company which hosts our Web site.” After apologizing for the numerous emails, she reassured me that “these email deliveries were unintentional and that we take the privacy of your contact information very seriously.” As much as I appreciate the personal response, I would think that I wasn’t the only one that was affected and that some kind of formal announcement on the website would be beneficial for those not inclined to respond as I did.

In any effect, aside from the small glitch in their host’s software, the Million Dollar Duck Race is just one of the events that take place throughout the year to help raise awareness and funds for the athletes of Special Olympics New York. Each of the ducks cost just $5.00, with a “Quacker’s Dozen” of 13 going for just $50, and prizes are given out for leading teams, not to mention the chance for the winning duck to net $1,000,000 for the owner if it happens to be one of the “Golden Ducks”.