Cow chip bingo is udderly vulgar, but it moooves people

Friday, Oct. 5, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photos by Gary Smith Kent Weeks checks out the players while wearing a cow hat during the seventh annual cow chip bingo event to benefit the Ironsides Volunteer Rescue Squad. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Tracey Harris paints a cow on the cheek of Kaylin Fenwick, 3, during the cow chip bingo event.

In addition to waiting for one of three bovines to do its duty in a field-turned-grid on David and Bertie Spaulding’s Port Tobacco spread, arts and crafts and games were filling the time.

But, make no mistake: On Saturday during Ironsides Volunteer Rescue Squad’s yearly fundraiser, everything and everyone was cow crazy.

Balloons, with the classic black-and-white Holstein cow print, waved from the clothesline. Kids — piled onto a hammock — wore cow-inspired hats.

And the fenced-in field where the brown-bodied, white-faced Herefords Mary May, Lulu and Dominique grazed was ringed with spectators lounging in lawn chairs.

The arts and crafts that children were busy painting and gluing faux flowers to were actually mounds of preserved cow pies that Bertie Spaulding, chief of the Ironsides Volunteer Rescue Squad, shellacked with Mod Podge, the all-in-one craft sealer.

Other rescue squad members were zigging and zagging among the crowd, reminding everyone that the cow chip toss was coming up.

‘‘Every year we get more and more people” showing up, Spaulding said.

In its seventh year as the squad’s fundraiser, cow chip bingo makes $1,500 for the group from ticket sales alone.

‘‘It’s easy money,” said Spaulding, a member of the squad for 19 years.

The profits from this year’s event will go toward paying for an addition to the squad’s building, she added.

Years ago, when searching the Internet for an interesting fundraiser, Spaulding happened upon the cow chip event, a long-popular moneymaker for fraternities and other groups.

She and her husband, David, have three Herefords — and long story short, all the chips fell into place, so to speak.

The 25 active squad and support members pitch in during the event, one that attracts curious viewers from all walks of life.

Steve Foster of Waldorf learned of the fundraiser when a co-worker brought a flier into his office.

After he and his two sons, Jordan, 13, and Jaron, 9, hit the National Book Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., earlier Saturday morning, they stopped by the bingo game to check it out, even though all the bingo squares had already been bought by others.

‘‘I never heard of it before,” Foster said of the cow chip game. ‘‘I thought it would be an interesting thing to observe.”

If a specified cow relieved itself on a designated square, money — as much as $500 — could be won.

Jennelle Johnson of Waldorf showed up with her daughter, 4 1⁄2-year-old Raven, after reading about the event on the Internet.

Raven took to the arts and crafts table, while Johnson stole glances back at the field.

‘‘I thought it’d be fun,” said Johnson, adding that Raven adores animals. ‘‘I thought we’d try it. It’s OK.

‘‘I’d like it a lot more if the cow would go in my square,” she said.

E-mail Sara K. Taylor at staylor@somdnews.com.