Flamingos attack T.O. yards
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

A flock of 80 pink flamingos suddenly appeared on Mildred Kappen's Lynn Ranch yard one day last fall.

Each bird was wearing a bow tie.

Kappen didn't find it strange at all, she said.

It was her 80th birthday and she was expecting about 300 people to drop by after church during an open house. What she did not know was while she was at church, members of the youth group were setting up the flamingos to add to the festivities.

K a p p e n wasn't the only one who's been "flocked," this year, explained Pam Rhodes, youth elder at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church.

About 50 high school students from Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and Newbury Park used those flamingos as a fundraiser to help them go to Mexico during spring break and do charity work.

For $50, in the cover of night, a flock of 40 birds would be sent to cover a yard, Rhodes said. A sign on one of the flamingos wished the recipient a happy birthday or carried another greeting.

On the back of the sign were instructions on how- for $5- the person with their yard covered with the silly pink ornaments could find out who sent them. The fowl on one leg would adorn the yard for three days unless the celebrant opted to pay $20 to have the birds fly off to someone else's yard.

"We raised about $4,400 with the flamingos," Rhodes said.

It cost each of the teens about $250 to give up their school spring break to go to Mexico, about 45 miles south of the border, and do construction work on churches there.

"They fix roofs or put in flooring," Rhodes said.

It is the group's 11th year of making the trip.

"While others are surfing and doing other activities, these kids give up their spring break to work in the hot sun," Rhodes said.

Their acts of compassion while enduring the heat include reroofing a house for a widow, she said.

"They've seen families living in houses made of cardboard," she said. "It's a lifechanging experience for them."

The teens separate into two teams. One group does construction. The other organizes vacation Bible school for the impoverished children of the area.

That organization begins well before the trip and takes a lot of preparation. The students bring all the snacks and the crafts they'll need for vacation Bible school, Rhodes said.

"The week they spend will affect the rest of their lives," Rhodes said. "They develop relationships with kids down there and can't wait to go back."

That means there will probably be more lawn ornaments around town in the coming year, she said.

"Maybe this time we'll also offer space aliens," Rhodes said.