Duck Libraries are Bringing Joy all Over NY
Kids are plastic duck hunting throughout Manhattan.
Kids are hunting ducks, adorable plastic ducks, throughout Manhattan in New York City. These elusive ducks have been hiding in duck libraries but there is a catch. You must abide by the duck hunting rules.
The duck library trend was started by an anonymous person, reported ABC7NY, and it was continued by a dog walker to spread joy. But you must abide by a strict take a duck, leave a duck policy.
How it Began
It all began in 2023 when JJ Cerillo, who works as a dog walker, saw a stranger putting an item on a railing. She leaned in to see what it was and saw that it was a plastic duck. Cerillo asked him if she could do the same and he agreed. She is now considered the duck librarian.
Shortly afterwards, the anonymous man put up the first duck library, a box on a pole in the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan.
“There was a whole crowd of kids around it and it just made my day, the joy it brought me, it was bringing them,” Cerillo told ABC7NY. She added additional libraries on Seaman Ave and even one inside a library.
She is now considered the duck librarian and duck hunting has become a movement with an Instagram page “chelseaduckmags.”
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Exploding in Popularity
Since 2023 Cerillo has placed thousands of ducks that she purchases herself, reported The New York Post. In fact, she spends $1,500 on Amazon every month. “This is kind of why I get up in the morning,” said Cerillo
Although she originally thought the idea would appeal to adults, it really took off with kids. “We’re seeing kids walking down the sidewalk hunting, and it just makes my day. And I know it makes their day,” she said. “It makes them so excited, they just want to find those ducks. It brings so many people together and it’s about ducks.”
Beatrice, 11, and Mille Knittel, 9, of Inwood started duck hunting in November 2024. Other children in their schools were duck hunting with their families and trading them at school.
The sisters didn’t know who the duck lady was, but they set out to find out who she was. The girls wrote a card signed by the kids in their classes to thank Cerillo for the project.
Later Cerillo turned the girls into duck ambassadors to fill the libraries when she went on vacation. “It was really fun. We went out really early and put that out in different places like she does, like Payson and Broadway,” Beatrice explained.
Cerillo is looking to grow the project beyond NY. There is now one in Edinburgh, Scotland but the sky is really the limit. After all, she shared, “Who doesn’t like ducks?”
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