Justin Dahlberg, 10 and Ty Sharp, 11, turned to the Henry Ford playbook Thursday night, with a mini-production line to stick microchips on ducks in preparation for Rotary's 15th annual Ducky Derby. Justin grabbed the duck, Ty applied the sticker, and Justin tossed the duck in the bucket - repeat 30,000 times.

Some 50 people showed up to "Sticky Butt Night" to affix stickers to the bottoms of the 30,000 plastic ducks that will pour out of a dump truck and race down the Roaring Fork River on Saturday."It's like a fellowship night," head duck Linda Schmehl said as conversation and smoke from the barbecue drifted out of the Sanitation District garage. "We have fun, the food is good."

One of Aspen's favorite fundraisers is set to begin at 7:37 a.m. Saturday and continue through the day at Rio Grande Park in Aspen. There will be a silent auction, live music, pancake breakfast, barbecue and duck race with big winners. The top prize is $1 million, though only one "special" duck in every 3,300 has the chance of being a million-dollar winner. If the top duck isn't one of those special nine, it still wins the adopter $15,000 cash. The Ducky Derby raises money for youth groups, nonprofits, scholarships and Rotary International charity projects. Rotary usually nets roughly $175,000 from the fourth-largest derby in the country. It costs Rotary about $50,000 to stage the party, with a significant part of the cost - $15,000 - duck rental.The schedule of eventsAll day games and booths at Rio Grande Park7:37 to 10:30 a.m. Basalt Lions Club pancake breakfast10:30 a.m. silent auction begins11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Network performs on the festival stage11:31 a.m. barbecue lunch2:07 p.m. duck race launch at No Problem Bridge2:52 p.m. duck race finish below Mill Street Bridge4:04 p.m. Ducky Derby winners announced at festival stage

Joel Stonington's e-mail address is jstonington@aspentimes.com