The fall is always filled to the brim with philanthropic and charitable events, from luncheons to fashion shows to concerts. Rarely does one have the opportunity to write “Duck Race” on their calendar. But, this year, AFA is giving you the chance to adopt a duck and watch it soar — we mean swim — to victory.

This isn’t some event to quack at. AFA’s Bayou City Duck Race will take place at 10 am on Saturday, November 4 at Allen’s Landing Park. AFA’s fifth annual rubber duck race will feature thousands of ducks racing to victory on Buffalo Bayou. The first 10 ducks to cross the finish line will receive one of the event’s fabulous prizes, and additional ducks will also be randomly selected for prizes. 

Prizes include a cash prize of $2,500, performing arts tickets, restaurant gift cards, Raising Cane’s for a year, pet care essentials, Texans tickets, Niko Niko’s gift cards, and more. For only $5 per duck, participants have the opportunity to further music education across Houston. The event will also feature performances by Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts’ Mariachi Los Pasajeros Ensemble and AFA’s Chamber Music Academy and DeLUXE K!DS in Harmony.

And the event is for a ducking good cause. 

AFA was founded in 1993 to break down barriers that exist in music education and enrich lives through music. The organization impacts more than 2,500 beginner to advanced young musicians in grades three through 12 each year. AFA provides programming at schools, community centers, in-house, and at its flagship Summer Music Festival. The Festival has been hailed as a model for intensive music education programming, serving more than 400 young musicians each summer.

Each year, AFA provides more than 40,000 hours of classroom instruction and provides nearly 50 free performances throughout the city. Diversity is incredibly important to the group, as it reached 47 percent of underrepresented groups on its faculty and 78 percent of its students last season. 91 percent of AFA students receive financial aid through AFA’s Play It Forward Fund. One duck can make the difference in ensuring young musicians have access to musical experiences that will shape their future forever.

Oh, what a duck can do.

Adapt your ducks now.