By Dominik Lobkowicz
Maggie Allen, principal of Windsor Elementary School, hired “Mother Flocker” Darlene Landry to flock RSU 12 Superintendent Howard Tuttle with 16 hot pink flamingos Nov. 4. The flocking was Landry’s first; she is offering the service as a fundraiser for Somerville’s Sand Hill Cemetery Association. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
Under the wing of “Mother Flocker” Darlene Landry, over 60 pink flamingos have started migrating around northern Lincoln County in recent weeks to help raise funds for the Sand Hill Cemetery Association in Somerville.
Landry, a trustee for the 65-year-old association, said she and the other trustees had to come up with a new way to raise money to fund the cleaning and restoration of headstones at the cemetery and perform other necessary maintenance.
“We don’t have so many people paying dues anymore because most of the people have died” and few family members are left to help, Landry said.
So, Landry started the “Holy Flock!” where, for a $20 registration, she will take her troop of tropical birds and set them up on someone’s lawn for 48 hours.
“I don’t think anything’s more fun than, if you have a foot of snow, to look out and see pink flamingos in your yard,” Landry said.
The $20 cost of a flocking will help cover the cost to clean one headstone; two flockings will roughly cover one stone restoration, Landry said. The association is a nonprofit, so the fee is tax-deductible, she said.
Landry promised Maggie Allen, the principal of Windsor Elementary School, she could have the first flocking. Allen paid for Landry to flock RSU 12 Superintendent Howard Tuttle on Election Day.
“We thought this was a great kickoff to flock the superintendent” because Windsor was voting on possible withdrawal from the RSU that day, Landry said.
“That was a fun fundraiser, and supporting the Sand Hill Cemetery is a good thing to do, so I’ve flocked somebody else,” Tuttle said.
Tuttle paid the flocking forward, selecting Whitefield Elementary School Principal Josh McNaughton as his target.
Tuttle only got Landry’s original 16 birds; Landry said she received a donation of another 50 flamingos from friends of hers since then and McNaughton received the full flock on Nov. 10.
Landry said flockers can have her tell the flockee who sent their surprise, or flockings can be done anonymously.
“Some people will do an anonymous flocking because they like to tell them,” Landry said.
Landry expects she’s going to be “a flocking fool.”
“I’ll flock anybody. I’m not fussy. I don’t want to drive to Machiasport, but within a reasonable amount of space, here,” she said.
The flock will be heading down to Massachusetts over Thanksgiving, Landry said, but she won’t have to take them for that trip.
“They may end up in Plymouth, Mass., and end up having Thanksgiving with a pilgrim,” she said. “You never know.”
For more information or to flock someone, call Landry at 549-5679.
