The duck race in Cluj

Every year, on Children's Day on June 1 rivers across the country become the site of a fun competition.

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 09.06.2026, 14:00

Every year, on Children’s Day on June 1 rivers across the country become the site of a fun competition. Thousands of rubber ducks, each representing an act of donation to a charitable cause, are launched on the water and the first duckling to cross the finish line wins a prize for the participant who adopted it. The Duck Race concept took place this year in 10 cities across the country, namely Bucharest, Brașov, Sibiu, Iași, Timișoara, Oradea, Alba-Iulia, Târgu-Mureș and Jimbolia, as well as Cluj-Napoca, where the most recent edition is the largest of its kind to be held in Romania.

Gabriela Musteaţă, a ROTARACT member, one of the main coordinators of the Duck Race in Cluj-Napoca, told us that the event has become a tradition in Cluj and an example of how people can do good together, in a fun way, adding:

“The Duck Race is a traditional project at national level. It is taking place this year in 10 cities across the country. In Cluj Napoca, the project has been held since 2017, and it’s the nicest charity race in the city. This is already the third year that we are honoured to organize the race on a much larger scope, namely on the Someş River. We are improving from one year to the next the way we organise ourselves, the spectacular setting of this race, the number of ducks we enter in the race and, of course, we try to offer the most pleasant experience to the people who support us and the very beautiful community of Cluj-Napoca, through various activities, which we organize. The motivation behind the project is the charitable nature of this race. Every year we choose a charitable cause in which we get involved and most of the time the 7 ROTARACT clubs in Cluj Napoca join forces to help the medical sector.”

Alex Muntean, a ROTARACT member and coordinator of the 2026 Duck Race coordinator, spoke about the charity chosen by Cluj this year:

“This year the charity chosen is the Saint Christopher Pediatric Palliative Care Center. It is the largest center of its kind in the country, with 38 beds. 13 children are hospitalized here and all the beds are to be filled soon. What they lack is the vital medical equipment to monitor children when they can no longer breathe on their own and need oxygenators and EEG machines.”

Gabriela Musteaţă once more with more details:

“The entire project is designed as a gift for the children of Cluj What we do in the race itself is to launch 25,000 ducklings in a very spectacular way, on the Someş River. We launch them from the Rose Bridge and then fish them all out right next to the Grigorescu urban beach on the Someş River. We take great care in this respect, to fish out all the ducklings, nothing is left in the river. It is a very nice race, it is a whole show that we offer for the community of Cluj that supports us. In addition to this, it’s an event that allows families to spend time together. Our project partners came up with dedicated activities for children and parents, from games, face-painting activities, to a photo-bus, 3D printers and many other things that allowed the whole family to have a great time on Children’s Day and we are glad that, like every year, we had the community of Cluj with us, who supports us year after year in this endeavor.”

The event brings together thousands of participants every year, as well as hundreds of volunteers and partners from the public and private sectors, transforming the city into a space dedicated to community, family and social involvement.

Alex Muntean also invited participants from abroad:

“This year we decided to expand the donation campaign and create a bridge between Romanians who have gone abroad to work and those who have stayed at home: children, grandchildren, siblings, relatives. They can choose from three gift boxes to send to Romania from abroad. Basically, they make a donation on our website, www.cluj.cursaderătuste.ro in exchange for a gift box, and we send home that box that contains both tickets to the race and a range of products with duck designs, such as socks, lamps and many other things that make children happy.”

The organisers believe that the Cursa de Rățuște project is a genuine example of active community involvement, at a time the public needs real examples of solidarity and communities that choose to build things together with positive and sustainable impact.