By Adriana Gasiewski

During Jennifer Schulman’s Public Art Design class, Cuyahoga Falls students learned about the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman and his inflatable duck that traveled around the world.

Schulman and the district’s National Art Honor Society realized they couldn’t bring Hofman’s duck to the All City Art Walk, but they could get the world’s largest inflatable rubber duck, towering at 61 feet, and started campaigning for it.

Schulman realized that money raised from the All City Art Walk would not be able to pay for the duck’s bill. 

However, when she saw a few 12-foot inflatable ducks touring downtown Cuyahoga Falls to promote the Ohio Rubber Duck Dash in April 2025, she remembered the duck dash occurs around the same time as the art walk, and the events together could cover the duck’s expenses.

She reached out to Emily Kilgore, an instructor for the Six District Educational Compact’s entrepreneur program in August of 2025. The EntrepreNew Pathways program is for Cuyahoga Falls, Stow-Munroe Falls, Tallmadge, Kent, Hudson and Woodridge high school juniors and seniors to gain hands-on entrepreneurial experiences through spearheading initiatives like the Rubber Duck Dash.

“We teamed up, and it’s been like a two-year process of getting our ducks in a row, per se, to get this all put together so we could do it together,” Schulman said. “The idea behind it is really just to bring joy to our community.”

Cuyahoga Falls’ 12th annual All City Art Walk will take place on April 23.

The art walk will display art from Cuyahoga Falls K-12 students, while also offering attendees make-and-take projects and photo opportunities, as well as live musical performances from students.

Schulman anticipates that the Art Walk will include more than 1,000 window clings displaying students’ art aligned with the theme “Art quacks me up” along Front Street and parts of Portage Trail.

Because Cuyahoga Falls’ middle school and high school recently combined, she said the duck focus is just what the kids need while adjusting to their new surroundings, reminding them “that it’s okay to have fun and play.”

During the Rubber Duck Dash, ducks adopted by individuals and businesses will race in an inflatable track. The cost to adopt a duck will go back to the Six District Educational Compact to help students fund the event in the future.

Entering its third year of hosting the Rubber Duck Dash, the Six Educational District Compact will also implement changes to its dash, outside of the presence of the large inflatable duck that will waddle its way to the Sheraton hotel.

In the 2025 duck dash, there was a record number of 10,000 ducks competing. 

Because of the currents and water being released from the Lake Rockwell Dam, the compact worked with Cuyahoga Falls firefighters to try to ensure that the ducks would not get lost in the river and cause pollution, Kilgore said.

But when one of the firefighters’ inflatable booms, which are meant to restrict water movement and keep objects from floating away, broke, the compact lost 2,000 to 1,500 ducks downstream, she said.

To avoid further duck losses, this year, they will unveil an inflatable track.

“We’re going to be racing the ducks in heats, so we’ll be racing 1,000 ducks at a time and then the winner of each heat will be in the final round for grand prize,” Kilgore said. “We’re also looking at creating an additional stream of revenue for the class by leasing this track out.”

The Rubber Duck Dash will still offer the same prizes, which include a first place prize of $1,000, $750 of Cedar Point gift cards for second place, a VIP package for the Akron RubberDucks for third place and four Cleveland Cavaliers' tickets for the 2026-2027 season for fourth place.

The 61-foot duck will be inflated on April 23, with the All City Art Walk occurring from 5 to 8 p.m.

Vendors and food trucks will be located near the duck from 12 to 8 p.m. on April 24. There will also be a wing-eating contest scheduled that day.

And the Ohio Rubber Duck Dash will start at 10 a.m. on April 25, with vendors and food trucks lining the street until 6 p.m. The dash itself will commence at 1 p.m.

For those interested in purchasing a rubber duck to compete in the Duck Dash, the sale starts on Feb. 23. Visit ohiorubberduckdash.com to purchase a duck for $5.