Thousands of rubber ducks will be heading down the Chenango River this weekend to help raise money for animals looking for a forever home.

The 7th annual Duck Derby will be held on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. behind the Holiday Inn Binghamton.

People can adopt the ducks which are tagged and numbered before being tossed into the Chenango River for the race.

The first duck to finish earns $5,000, along with $1,300 for 2nd and $700 for 3rd.

The proceeds benefit the Broome County Humane Society, which just relocated to a new facility twice its size and capacity.

“Now that we’re in our new facility, we’ve taken on more animals than we ever have in the past.  We’ve already surpassed the number of animals from all of last year in these first 7 months.  We still have 6 or 5 months left to go. We’re already looking at doubling what we had last year just by looking at the numbers,” said Fundraising Coordinator Kim Broderick.

So far, over 7,500 ducks have been sold.

People can purchase them until 1 hour prior to the race.

Ducks are available at Sam’s Club on Friday or online at BinghamtonDuckRace.com.