While it's not as much as organizers hoped for, the legacy of the CAN race-relations commission is alive, granting nearly $1.7 million to community programs in a year.

The program is called Better Together Cincinnati. The goal was to raise $20 million. But with national foundations not interested, local foundations and companies have banded together and settled for nearly $6 million in pledges over the next five years.

The group continues to seek new money. While some are disappointed by the reluctance of other companies to pledge, others point out that the program is the only support for valuable programs created by CAN.

"It's a start, and it's a good start," said Carol Talbot, trustee of the Procter & Gamble Fund, one of the 15 funders.

It's been more than three years since racial violence erupted in Over-the-Rhine in April 2001. One of Mayor Charlie Luken's responses was the CAN commission, which faded away by design after the programs were created.

Some have found a home, such as the Success By 6 early-childhood initiative, which is run out of the local United Way. But others need ongoing funding, such as the Cincinnati Arts & Technology Center, which provides job training.

The latest grant was $775,000 to the Community Police Partnering Center early this year. The Better Together Cincinnati funders regularly consider new grants to initiatives formed by CAN, said Kathy Merchant, president of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, which is housing the program.

Wash a duck - and another

The organizers of the Rubber Duck Regatta hope to dump as many as 100,000 rubber ducks into the Ohio River on Sunday afternoon, aiming to raise half a million dollars for the FreeStore/FoodBank.

The next day, volunteers will gather for a less glamorous duty - washing river grime off the ducks.

Procter & Gamble Co. joined the event as a sponsor this year and will provide the Dawn dishwashing liquid to wash the ducks, Regatta spokeswoman Barb Eickmeyer said.

P&G has a natural connection because it already has a program that uses Dawn to save ducks - real ones - from oil spills.

"If they're saving real ducks, this is another way to highlight that," Eickmeyer said.

For more information on the Regatta, visit www.freestorefoodbank.org/regatta.html.

"Deep trouble"

It's been one blow after another this year for WVXU-FM 91.7 and other public radio stations.

Subsidies from the state of Ohio have gone down $59,000, or more than 40 percent, in the last two years. And fees to National Public Radio and other programming networks have gone up more than 11 percent, adding another $37,000 to the expense side.

As WVXU starts its semi-annual pledge drive Sept. 8, it's sounding the alarm to contributors: more money needed.

"To put it starkly, all of us are in deep trouble," radio director Jim King wrote in an advertisement in this month's Cincinnati Magazine, which was paid for in traded time. "... Over 100,000 listeners each week tune into WVXU, but only about 9,000 are members.

"I am personally begging those who listen but have not yet joined to do so."

In an interview, King was less dramatic but no less insistent.

"We're OK," he said. "We'll get by this fiscal year."

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com