What a difference a rubber duck can make
If you’ve ever found yourself wandering past a Jeep and noticed the dashboard was playing host to a veritable hoard of rubber ducks, you’re likely not a Jeep fanatic.
In the Wednesday edition of the Eagle, staff reporter Eddie Trizzino told us about the death and impact of Allison Parliament, who, by simply leaving a rubber duck on a stranger’s Jeep in 2020, brought smiles to people around the world by starting the “ducking” trend, in which people leave rubber ducks on Jeeps they appreciate.
Parliament, who is originally from Orillia, Ontario, Canada, died June 22, according to a Facebook post from her mother, Cheryl Parliament. According to the post, Allison died peacefully at home.
Only last month, Allison was in Butler for the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival, where she was on hand to sign rubber ducks for attendees at the invasion in downtown Butler.
Allison’s passing made national news on Fox, and her Duck Duck Jeep fundraiser was covered by MotorTrend. Amazon sells rubber ducks in bulk packages for Jeepers. There’s a mobile app called Happy Duckers to track the ducks you’ve given out.
After the announcement of her death, the Jeep company posted a farewell to Allison on social media, featuring a graphic of a rubber duck fashioned as a female viking with wings and a halo. The post had hundreds of comments.
Allison started the movement in 2020, when she placed a rubber duck on a stranger’s Jeep as a humorous and kind gesture. “Nice Jeep,” was written on the duck’s underside. Over the following years, she has traveled North America in her 2018 yellow Rubicon giving out rubber ducks and autographs in hopes of making people smile.
In addition to starting a movement, Allison’s gesture started Duck Duck Jeep, a nonprofit that has spread to dozens of countries. More than 60,000 people have documented their participation in the new tradition.
“I started it after I was assaulted, and I wanted to make people smile, and people were afraid of people coming to Canada because of COVID,” Parliament said in May. “I got caught doing it, and the gentleman who caught me thought it was hysterical and said I should put it on social. I did, and it took off.”
Patti Jo Lambert, director of the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival, said she had become close with Allison over the three consecutive years she attended the Jeep festival, and constantly texted with her to keep in touch while Allison toured the country for Duck Duck Jeep.
One of the last texts Lambert received from Allison said she planned to return to the Jeep Invasion in 2025, hopefully with a rubber duck made in her likeness. Now we can’t help but wonder if it was a viking.
It’s incredible what a difference a rubber duck can make.
— RJ
