Yowsers! What a day! (Yes, I said yowsers… deal with it)

Yesterday, the fantastic people from the Omaha Food Bank came to AAS with Quacky the duck in tow. After the initial pleasantries, we got down to business with the duck and put him to the test against our resident Guitar Hero expert Terry.

Though Quacky got cocky at times (see him playing the guitar with his beak here and here), in the end Terry won out and sent Quacky quickly through some of the stages of grief. First anger appeared to set in as a menacing pose was struck, but he quickly moved on to acceptance and dejectedly walked away (note: at press time no photos or videos of Terry mocking Quacky with flapping arms and quacking sounds were to be found).

The Guitar Hero antics proved to be the most light-hearted event of the day, but the real reason we were graced with Quacky’s presence centered around the adoption of ducks for the O! What a Duck Race taking place July 26, 2008 in Heartland of America Park.

And oh, did AAS and Brightmix employees adopt! With just over 200 ducks adopted (just shy of $800 raised) in about 35 minutes, the combined companies almost overran the stunned volunteers. Combined with the original sponsorship by Volunteer Omaha, the raised amount should help the Food Bank distribute close to $50,000 of food items to those people in need of it in the Omaha and Council Bluffs area.

Not bad for the first project out of the gate.

That being said, we aren’t done, and neither is The Food Bank.

You can catch Quacky and The Food Bank volunteers at any of the upcoming events in the Omaha metro:

7/16 9a-2p Panera Bread - Bellevue
7/18 9:30-1p Panera Bread - Eagle Run
7/19 8a-12:30 Old Market Farmer’s Market
7/19 10a-12p Duck Olympics <—– Volunteer Omaha will be participating. Come cheer us on.
7/19 4p-10p Playing with Fire
7/20 12p-3p Scheels @ Village Pointe

Also, at anytime, you can grab some adoption paperwork online here and give yourself a chance to win a free car or even $1,000,000.

That is it for now. Stay tuned in the near future as we work hard on training our newly adopted ducks.

(P.S. You can see the full set of pictures from yesterday’s festivities here)