Cow patty bingo a big hit at Butler Farm Show grounds
CONNOQUENESSING TWP — A crowd gathered Saturday at the Butler Farm Show grounds on Evans City Road waiting for the other poo to drop.
In the Kids Day America Cow Patty Bingo event, from noon to 2 p.m., three cows — Rosie the Rotarian, Henrietta and Stevie — wandered a 40-foot-by-50-foot area divided into 500 2-foot squares and let the cow chips fall where they may.
People who bought a ticket corresponding to a square that received a dropping from one of the herd won $100 for the first drop, $250 for the second instance or $1,000 for the final deposit.
Judges for the contest were Butler County Sheriff Mike Slupe; Jordan Grady, executive director of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce; and Kim Thomas, a teacher at McQuiston Elementary School and the founder of the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation's Kids' Weekend Backpack program, which will be the benficiary of the money raised by the cow bingo.
The backpack program gives food-insecure students throughout the Butler School District free nonperishable food on Fridays for meals over the weekend.Thomas said, “The program feeds students in kindergarten through fourth grade. We send out over 300 bags per week.”Thomas added the program is planning to add fifth-graders.The cows were borrowed from the Guy Daubenspeck farm for their moment in the spotlight.Emily Zang and Robyn Freund, along with Mollie the cattle dog, were in charge of keeping the cows on their best behavior.Asked when the cows might fill a square, Zang said, “We feed them every morning and night. If they are in a pen they get a lunchtime feeding, too.”Although she allowed the mile trip in a trailer might have upset their digestion.The two older Black Angus cows were dubbed Stevie and Rotary Rose for their sponsors Steve's Auto Body and the Butler AM Rotary Club.The yearling was named Henrietta and was sponsored by the Dimmick Famly.Daubenspeck said he wasn't so much as donating the cattle but their time.“The time and the manure we are going to leave here,” he said.Kids Day America Event organizers Stuart Surkosky of the Care Chiropractic Clinic, 837 Evans City Road, Renfrew, and his wife, Dawn, said the event also featured a 50/50 raffle, food trucks and a donation box to collect food to be used in the backpack program.Stuart Surkosky said given COVID-19 restrictions, his chiropractic center sponsored the cow patty bingo event in lieu of the usual children's activities and performances.The cows performed well Saturday. All three winning squares were filled in under an hour.
