Pink plastic flamingos single-handedly saved the class of 2021´s after-grad party. 

When school let out early last spring due to COVID-19 many things got canceled including most of the fundraisers for the class of 2021. 

Trying to find funding for PSH PALS 2021 for the after-grad party, senior parent Donna Faust came up with the idea of “flocking” students and teachers to raise money for PALS of 2021. “Flocking” is the term used for covering someone’s yard in plastic flamingos and the person then has to pay to remove it from their yard or pay more to choose the next victim. This took a lot of parents and students working together and each had their own role. 

Edy Flake, the PTO president, had an important job when it came to flocking.

  ¨I was responsible for organization, assembling the flocks, getting drivers every evening, managing flocks and flock restorations,¨ she said. 

Since flockers would go out late to flock so as not to get caught, the flocking was done by the students of class of 2021. Each student had their own routine and perspective when it came to flocking. 

¨We wouldn’t even leave the house until around 9:30-10:00 and we would be out until Midnight at least. This quickly became a nightly adventure for me. On all the nights that I wasn’t working, I was flocking with Paige [and our other friends Trystin LaRue-Green and Natalie Stubblefield were often flocking with us.] Flocking was a great way to spend time with my friends who I hadn’t seen in quite a while because of Coronavirus. I really enjoyed seeing them all again and being able to do something that would benefit our graduating class, as well as being able to bring some joy to South families at a time that we all really needed it,¨ senior “flocker” Aaron Bennett said. 

Bennett said he didn’t always have an easy job flocking but those nights were fun for him, too.

 ¨My favorite night of flocking was when the family I had to flock was at their dining room table playing cards and could see directly outside to their front yard so Paige (Peterson) and I had to army crawl around their yard and it took us like 20 minutes to flock the whole yard and by the end of it I was covered in grass and leaves,¨ he said. Others weren’t as skilled as Bennet when it came to avoiding getting caught. 

Senior Donovan Bale also helped with the flocking this summer.  

¨One time me and my friends were flocking a house, and one of my friends was very nervous about being caught. When we were almost done, the family spotted us and my friend panicked. We ended up sprinting back to the car and burning rubber, and I later saw the aftermath on the target’s story,¨ he said.

Other targets decided to have fun when catching flockers, like senior Trystin LaRue-Green.

¨My friend and I had flocked Nima Saboorizadeh’s house and he tried to freak us out by turning his porch lights off and on,¨ he said.

Compared to the others, Athletic Director Matt Roach definitely had the cutest story when it came to flocking.  

¨The night we got flocked–my family decided to camp out in our backyard and I remember hearing some noise around 11 p.m., but I just thought it was the neighbors who were hanging out. My family and I woke up and one of our daughters came running back from the front yard and said we have flamingos everywhere! I thought she was joking…but sure enough they were everywhere! I was super shocked and I had not heard of flocking until then. My family had a good laugh,¨ Roach said. 

Another important part of flocking is the victim choosing the next target. Some people took advantage of the flocking system to get revenge on people likeTrystin LaRue-Green´s family who paid to double flock his aunt and uncle’s house because his uncle hated yard flamingos. Others did it in good fun to their friends. 

Art teacher Eric Ludlow was another teacher who was flocked. 

¨I thought of which staff members lived close to me and then my son wanted to flock his best friend’s house and luckily those two aligned perfectly,¨ Ludlow said.  

When Ludlow found out Mr. Brady (journalism teacher) flocked him he wasn’t as chill. 

¨Although I am cool with Mr. Brady, I have been steadily planning my revenge which I will rain down upon him with great fury when he least expects it,¨ he said.

Flocking in the end raised $10,000 for the class of 2021 to go toward their senior grad party. 

Flocking was a great success and brought much joy.

¨I am very grateful we were able to not only raise money but also raise the spirits of people throughout our community. Even with the 10k, I think that servicing our community in the way we did was the best thing to come out of this fundraiser,” Flake said. “There were so many pictures of people who were “flocked” and the smiles on their faces were priceless. I hope this can be something that can be done again next summer and that it brings as much joy as it did to me this year.¨