The Oct. 3 Augusta Duck Dash raised $205,254 to provide area children a safe, comfortable place to sleep.
More than 4,600 rubber ducks launched at Savannah Rapids Park and raced down the Augusta Canal. The adjacent fall festival brought families together for inflatables, games, vendors, trunk-or-treat, a kids’ costume contest, Jeep contest, food trucks and live performances.
Behind the fun was the mission to sustain the Family YMCA of Greater Augusta’s A Place to Dream program.
“When we started A Place to Dream, we saw children in our community without a bed of their own and thought, ‘This is a problem we can fix,’” said Catie McCauley, President and CEO of Family YMCA of Greater Augusta. “What we quickly learned was just how great the need really is, and that need continues to grow. Duck Dash gives our community a way to come together around these children and helps us sustain this program so that when a family needs a bed or a safe place for their baby to sleep, we can continue to say yes.”
Since 2017, A Place to Dream has provided more than 2,000 beds to local children who do not have an adequate place to sleep. As the program has grown, the YMCA has expanded its efforts and partnered with WellStar/MCG Health Augusta to provide portable cribs and safe sleep education to families with infants. The program relies entirely on donations and volunteers to meet a need that has proven far greater than the YMCA initially imagined.
When A Place to Dream was established, research indicated that nearly two-thirds of families living below the poverty line in the CSRA lacked adequate sleep spaces for everyone in their household. The demand the YMCA has experienced since launching the program has reinforced the magnitude of that need.
For more information about A Place to Dream, the Augusta Duck Dash or ways to support the program, visit thefamilyy.org/a-place-to-dream/.
Augusta Good News is an award-winning member of the Georgia Press Association, receiving a second place General Excellence in 2025 and 2026 Sign up for our free weekly newsletter here.
