Flamingos aren’t well-known for being entrepreneurs, but in the hands of the Pe Ell School WE Club, a flamboyance that flocked Pe Ell yards in recent weeks raised the club over $1,000 to buy Christmas gifts for local kids.
As part of the fundraiser, aptly called “You’ve Been Flocked,” WE Club members stealthily planted a flock of flamingos in an unsuspecting Pe Ell resident’s yard and asked the “victim” to donate $5 per bird, or whatever amount they were comfortable with, to have the flamboyance — the technical term for a group of flamingos — removed and placed in another yard of their choosing.
Regardless of the donation, the flock only stayed in one person’s yard for 24 hours.
Enough Pe Ell residents played along with both the “You’ve Been Flocked” fundraiser and a Dance-a-Thon at the school this year for the WE Club to buy Christmas presents for six kids in the community.
The club’s eight members purchased the gifts on Friday, Dec. 16, and spent the following Monday wrapping the presents to deliver on Tuesday.
The WE Club is a nonprofit, "good deeds" club made up of high school students who raise money for a number of different causes, including buying goats for families in Africa and rebuilding an elementary school year destroyed by Hurricane Harvey.
Over the last six years, the club has raised over $7,000 to buy Christmas gifts for local Pe Ell families.
While this year’s fundraiser benefited fewer kids than last year’s, the club was able to allocate more money to each kid this year than in years past.
The club’s returning members agreed that delivering the presents to the kids was their favorite part of this particular fundraiser.
“It’s pretty cool to see all the parents’ reactions,” said Pe Ell senior and WE Club member Payton Peterson.
