Why are Jeep owners all across the country playing chauffeur to a giant stuffed duck?
They’re raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Mr. Vanderquack, the aforementioned plush waterfowl, was handed off in Morgantown on Tuesday and driven to Martinsburg by Charlee Enos, a Morgantown resident and Jeeper, as Jeep owners are known. Her boyfriend Ron Dixon accompanied her.
Enos said she’s in a lot of Jeep clubs and saw a link to mrvanderquack.com when the trip was being planned.
There is a tradition among Jeepers to leave rubber ducks on other Jeeps as a way to compliment the vehicle, explained Lisa Unverzagt, who came up with the idea of Mr. Vanderquack’s 50 state tour.
She thought it would be a fun way to raise money for St. Jude and her husband said it would be cool if she could make it work – so she bought a stuffed duck, sewed a GPS tracker into it, and got started.
Unverzagt said she works in the funeral industry and, through the years, has interacted with several families helped by St. Jude.
Enos has also been touched by the hospital’s mission.
“I’ve had a lot of people in my family and friend group have to either use St. Jude’s for cancer or other sorts of rare diseases and treatments and my friend’s little girl’s a stage four brain cancer survivor that went to St. Jude’s,” Enos said.
Mr. Vanderquack hitched a ride to Morgantown with Lisa Robinson, her husband Rob and their two grandchildren, Grayson and Bryleigh Debee.
Robinson said she always gives back to anything to do with children – the Shriners helped her son when he was burned.
“And you put my Jeep, which I love, and St. Jude or anything like that together, and it’s a win-win,” Robinson said.
Mr. Vanderquack’s journey can be tracked on his website and the two most difficult states – Hawaii and Alaska – have already been visited.
Unverzagt said the goal is to raise $100,000 by the time Mr. Vanderquack completes his trip and is auctioned off. As of Tuesday night, $65,371.35 had been raised.
The journey began on Sept. 3 when Mr. Vanderquack left St. Louis, Mo. West Virginia is the 34th state he’s visited.
Mr. Vanderqack Jr. will follow in his dad’s footsteps when he leaves from Jeep Beach in Daytona, Florida, on April 25. Anyone interested in participating in that trip can visit mrvanderquack.com.
