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Steamboat Springs — Rubber duckies are going to hit the Yampa River by the trash-can load Saturday morning.

The buoyant bobbers will enter the waterway at the Fifth Street Bridge and float to 13th Street during the 21st annual Rubber Ducky Race. The cost of ducky sponsorship is $10, and proceeds benefit Yampa Valley Medical Center, spokeswoman Riley Polumbus said.

"If you've never seen it before, you've got to check it out," Polumbus said. "It's not every day you see a bunch of rubber ducks floating down the river. It's only one day a year."

The race will offer more prizes than ever this year, she said. Winners could take home a season ski pass, an Old Town Hot Springs membership or a golf pass for Catamount Ranch and Club, Polumbus said.

"Your chances of winning, because we have more prizes, are better than ever before," she said.

Sponsors paid for about 2,000 ducks last year, Polumbus said. She didn't have numbers for this year's race but estimated that the response would be comparable. People also can spend $5 and get a souvenir duck to keep. This year, those toys come in construction worker and cowboy models.

Proceeds will go toward a training tool for YVMC - sort of a human simulator, Polumbus said. Proceeds also will go toward furnishing a family room in the new family birthplace, which is doubling in size as part of a $13 million expansion, and to the Doak Walker Care Center.

The event, in addition to raising funds for the hospital, draws plenty of spectators, Polumbus said. Folks can watch the ducks get poured into the river and then walk to the 13th Street Bridge to watch the end of the race. Not every duck makes it, and volunteers remove all toys from the river.

"We haven't been keeping track of how many ducks get down, how many require search and rescue," Polumbus said. "We don't know."

She added that there's no skill required.

"I am sure there's people that try to work every angle possible to give the duck every advantage they can get, but it's completely random," Polumbus said. "Even if you're the first duck, you could be the first duck to be stuck on a rock."