By Rachel Newdorf

These ducks don’t live in a pond or go quack. Most aren’t even yellow.

Mason Dining Duckies, the collectable duckies that are offered through Sodexo, Mason’s food provider, are given away at Mason dining facilities like South Side or the new Subway when you purchase any food item. Since they started to be given out, over 2,000 are given away every semester.

What makes them so special? They are coveted collectors items that are given away only at certain times, like holidays and at Mason events. To know when and where to get them, Mason Dining announces when and where the duckies will be given away on their Facebook page ranging from days to hours before they become available.

It all started two and a half years ago when Sodexo’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Denise Ammaccappane was looking for something that students could collect and get involved in.

A random Internet search led her to the inexpensive rubber ducks from a website called orientaltrading.com that came in all different shapes, themes and sizes. Loving the idea, she went around to her colleagues, who thought she was crazy. But students she spoke to loved the idea, so she decided to start offering duckies at different dining establishments around campus.

“The series became really popular,”said Ammaccappane, 55. “When we held our Duckie Contest, people would send in such creative ideas that they inspired us to keep the program going.”

Creating rubber duckies in all characters, some being holiday themed with others just being fun and goofy- like an alien or the popular robot duckie, Mason Dining found their way into being more a part of the Mason community as a whole.

Amiee Acreneaux, a sophomore Foresnic Science major from Manassas, Va., loves collecting Mason Dining Duckies. So far, she has 20 different ducks.

“The detail and the different kinds grab me,” Acreneaux, 19 said. “I think that they’re cute and fun.”

Having been on a hiatus this semester, Sodexo hopes to bring more Dining Duckies back later this spring and next fall.

“We wanted to make someone’s day just because,” Daliana Gandarillas explains. Gandarillas, 25, who works at Sodexo on campus and lives in Springfield.

To see when and where a new duckie will debut, check out Mason Dining on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/masondining

Lucky Ducks
Monster Ducks