The Ducks of the Peabody Hotel in Orlando, Florida

On Wednesday, June 28th, I attended the NEA-PAC Council meeting (made up of state presidents) at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando. Our meeting finished by 10:30, so many of us gathered in the hotel lobby to see the red carpet roll out awaiting the arrival of the "Peabody Ducks". Every morning at 11:00 a.m. the ducks ride down the hotel elevator, walk across the red carpet to the fountain in the center of the hotel's lobby. At 5:00 p.m. the ducks are then escorted back down the red carpet, up the elevator to their "home". What follows was taken from the Peabody Hotel website:

The Legend of the DucksSM The decades-old tradition of the ducks in the Peabody fountain started back in the 1930s. Frank Schutt, general manager of The Peabody® Memphis, and his friend, Chip Barwick, returned from a week-end hunting trip to Arkansas. The men had had a little too much Tennessee sippin' whiskey and thought it would be fun to place their live decoy ducks (it was within the law then for hunters to use live decoys) in the beautiful Travertine marble fountain in the lobby of The Peabody. Three small English Call ducks were placed in the fountain and the reaction was nothing short of enthusiasm. Thus began a Peabody tradition that has endured and is now firmly established as an American icon around the globe. After 80 years, the marble fountain in the hotel lobby is still graced by North American Mallards and their ceremonial March of The Peabody Ducks still takes place daily at 11am and 5pm. The Tradition Continues... As the renown of The Peabody Ducks grew, PHG began to spread its wings, first to Orlando and then to Little Rock. Today, The Peabody® Orlando and The Peabody® Little Rock also proudly perform the March of The Peabody Ducks.