Flamingo Fundraiser Outrages Quincy Homeowner
QUINCY (CBS) - Carol Abbott's front yard is exceptionally well-manicured and, at the moment, heavily decked out for Halloween. She's clearly a fan of decorating her home.
But a flock of flamingos, she says, was too much.
"I was not happy that people had to stand on my property to insert these things into my lawn, and [put up] a big sign that I've been flocked," says the Quincy resident. "I love my yard, I love my private property and it was a shock to me to see that."
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong reports
The "flocking" is a fundraiser for Quincy High School's "Senior Night Out", a post-prom party that offers an after-hours, alcohol-free environment to keep kids safe.
In their third year as fundraisers, the flocks consist of a dozen plastic pink flamingos that make the rounds throughout Quincy. If they show up on your lawn, it means someone paid $20 dollars to send them there. The project raises around $5,000 annually to put toward the estimated $12,000 expense of "Senior Night Out".
If your front yard gets "flocked" you can do something called "flock it forward": pay $20 and send the birds to your friend's house. Or, you can just leave them there and the kids will pick them up later in the day.
When Carol saw hers, she called the school to complain. When she didn't hear back, she called the Quincy Police.
"I am absolutely committed to my conviction that I am entitled, and have worked all my life, to have private property that should not have unauthorized access," she explains. "Let's keep these kids on the straight and narrow and teach them how to be a good American and to respect other people's rights. And my right has been violated."
Abbott's son is a 2009 graduate of Quincy High School. Abbott herself says she spent six years as president of her son's elementary school's Parent-Teacher Organization and has personally helped to raise tens of thousands of dollars for Quincy's schools. It is only this particular fundraiser, and the way in which it is organized, she doesn't like.
"I supported the schools and I support the administration," Abbott says. "But when that administration and parents start telling the kids it's fine to go on people's property without their permission [and] deposit things in the name of fundraising, to me is incomprehensible."
The fundraiser's organizer can't believe that someone in the community is so annoyed by the plastic birds.
"I really never thought that it could be a problem for anybody and I'm sorry that obviously it has been," says Ursula Schulte, whose older daughter graduated from Quincy High two years ago and whose younger daughter is currently a senior there.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Rod Fritz reports
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She says every year a couple of people complain, but nothing like this. "This taught me that some people don't like it as much as I thought they would."
"I do see her point," Schulte continues. "I just never thought that this could feel intrusive to anybody, because it's fun. It's pink flamingos."
Abbott says the superintendent of schools has offered her an apology, along with a promise to reconsider the way this fundraiser is handled in the future.
