TOLEDO – The World’s Largest Duck made an appearance for two days, July 29 and 30, at Hollywood Casino Toledo, bringing in guests who were there for the photo opp and to see the spectacle of a giant duck that could be seen from the highway. Mama Duck and Baby Duck were quite the attraction, especially given the rubber duck’s association with the Jeep brand. It was a good lead-in to this weekend’s Toledo Jeep Fest.
“We’re excited because we’re huge Jeep fans,” said Shasta Sibbersen of West Toledo, as she petted her Pomeranians, Dakota Bear and Daisy, who both sat contentedly in their tiny white Jeep below the giant Mama Duck. “This is their Jeep, and I have one that matches.”
Other Toledoans lined up for their chance to take pictures with the large yellow celebrities.
Mama Duck’s Director of Operations, Jase Wierda, 30, from Duluth, Minn., stopped by Toledo on the way to Put-In-Bay.
“It’s 61 feet tall, 64 feet wide, 74 feet long and it’s roughly 140,000 cubic feet,” Wierda said, rattling off the stats from memory. The massive duck was the brain child of Craig Samborski, who Wierda ended up working with outside of duck-related activities in Duluth.
Eventually, Samborski recruited Wierda for some help with the duck, and now Wierda has traveled with the duck for the past three years.
In all, Mama Duck has traveled for 11 years, and this is her second iteration, with the main improvement being a more easily compactible base for easier travel.
“We had a custom barge,” Wierda said of the original Mama Duck. “So it had to go on water, and it was a ton of work. This one is a lot easier to bring around to different places, and we don’t have to have a barge; we can set it up in a parking lot.”
Timmy, on the other hand, is on at least his seventh iteration. Wierda lost count at some point. But he mentioned the baby duck gets a little more punishment from the kids getting more interactive with it.
After Put-In-Bay, Wierda said the duck troupe was on to the Missouri State Fair.
“It seems to never really end,” he said. “Just when we want to take a break, somebody else calls us and they’re like, ‘Hey, we’re excited to bring you guys out, and have the duck.’ And then we do it.”
