A duck led the Tartan Army parade in Providence? Yes, and she’s famous in Rhode Island.
PROVIDENCE — Amid the wail of bagpipes and the crack of snare drums, the leader of the Tartan Army‘s parade through downtown Providence quacked.
Draped in a mallard-sized Scottish flag, Dawn the Duck waddled at the front of some 3,000 football fanatics who paraded through the city Thursday as they geared up for Friday’s World Cup match vs. Morocco.
Before the march, Dawn and her owner, Justin Taymes, held an informal meet-and-greet with members of the Providence Tartan Army at the 195 District Park, near the Michael S. Van Leesten Memorial Pedestrian Bridge.
Fans in soccer jerseys posed for photos with Dawn, and some suggested her Scottish name should be “Scrooge McDuck.” Taymes readily agreed.
Taymes, who was born and raised in Providence, said he bought Dawn at the Tractor Supply Co. two years ago for $7, and he registered her as a “service duck.”
Since then, Dawn has become a local celebrity, with people flocking around her at events ranging from New England Patriots games to the lighting of the Big Blue Bug, where she got to meet Grammy Award-nominated singer Jeffrey Osborne.
Befitting the life of a celebrity, Dawn now has a lawyer, a security guard, and a manager, Taymes said. She is attracting sponsors, including Tizzy K’s Cereal Ice Cream and Jeep Wrangler, and she has her own jeweler, he said.
“I take her to schools, to children’s hospitals, to nursing homes, adult daycare centers,” Taymes said in an interview. “I do the 5K cancer races.”
Dawn has an active Instagram account, with nearly 31,000 followers. It features photos with officials such as Governor Daniel J. McKee and Cranston Mayor Kenneth J. Hopkins, plus appearances at local nightclubs.
Now, Taymes said he is working on children’s book titled “How Dawn Found Her Quack.”
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“It’s going to have two messages,” Taymes said. “The first message is going to be the reason why it’s safe to recycle, and then the second message is going to be: No matter how old somebody is, they can still learn something new.”
As with many celebrities, Dawn has ruffled some feathers.
For a while, she was being described as “the unofficial mascot” of the Providence College Friars men’s basketball team. But in 2024, Dawn was barred from the Amica Mutual Pavilion, where the Friars play their home games.
Rhode Island Convention Center general manager Larry Lepore told WJAR’s Frank Carpano that, “As much as some people might have thought it was cute, there were other people that we got responses back from the public thinking that it was kind of cruel to the animal.”
So Taymes stopped bringing her there.
“They said no ducks allowed,” Taymes said. “I didn’t mind it. That was a blessing in disguise.”
He rejects the idea that bringing Dawn into crowds at arenas and other places is bad for the duck.
“That’s because they don’t know this duck,“ Taymes said. ”This duck’s not like those ducks.”
Dawn is very healthy and very tame, he said.
“I raised her by passing her around to everybody, so she thinks everybody is her cousin,” Taymes said. “I put her on the floor, she doesn’t want to get away. I put her in a pond, and she always comes back. So that means I’m doing a good job.”
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion about the duck, Taymes said. “But the world knows I’m here for a good reason,” he said. “I’m here to put smiles on faces, spread love and positivity. The world needs that.”
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