If you step outside in the morning and discover that your yard has been graced with a flock of hot pink, plastic birds, you can be sure that the fifth graders at Cork Elementary School have something to do with it.
Residents of the Plant City area have been “flocking” their friends to help the fifth graders at Cork raise money for an end-of-the-year celebration at Disney World.
Every summer, students from Cork spend a day at Disney for one last hurrah together before heading off to middle school. Throughout the year, they have to fundraise for the trip.
Earlier this year, the fifth grade class sold Yankee Candles and World’s Finest Chocolate. These sales helped the class raise about 80% of its $10,000 goal, which will cover transportation and ticket costs for the 100 fifth-grade students and their teachers. Organizers also hope to raise a little extra, so that next year’s fifth graders don’t have to start with an empty balance.
But this spring, Shannon Scott, a fifth-grade PTA liaison at Cork, came up with a more creative type of fundraiser: bombarding Plant City with three, 20-bird flocks of plastic flamingos.
“This is our last-ditch effort to keep the tickets down, so that some of the children that on the norm couldn’t go, can go,” Scott said.
When someone is “flocked,” he or she can spend $10 to have the flamingos removed or $15 to have them removed and sent to a specific address. For those who are worried that others might later seek revenge, $20 sends the flock to a specific address and covers insurance so that the birds cannot return.
“Most people have really gotten a kick out of it,” Scott said. “And it’s nice because we’ve been able to reach out to other people, other than just our Cork family.”
Scott, fifth-grade teacher Jenny Joyner and some other volunteer parents are usually the ones moving the flocks from house to house.
“Every once in a while we get caught putting them out in somebody’s yard, and they come out and they just laugh,” Scott said.
The flamingos started at Principal Sherri Black’s house, and within the first two weeks, they had popped up in the yards of more than 30 Plant City families and brought in about $600.
The fifth-grade class is well on its way to reaching that $10,000 goal and enjoying Disney World together.
“It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing for some of them, and the kids just love it,” Scott said.
Join In
To donate to Cork Elementary’s fifth grade class without the flocking call Shannon Scott at (863) 289-0519 or the school office at (813) 757-9353.
Contact Catherine Sinclair at csinclair@plantcityobserver.com.