For the second year, residents will gather at Connellsville Area High School to partake in a game of bingo where the front lawn will act as the playing card and the marker will be a cow patty, hence the Second Annual Cow Patty Bingo.
Last year, according to Beth Shreve, a teacher at the high school and one of the organizers of the event, they had an excellent turnout for the Cow Patty Bingo, selling every ticket. "We could have sold another 1,000 after people continued asking about it."
Shreve says the first Cow Patty Bingo started as a joke between teachers, but after some thought, the idea was brought to the principal and was accepted.
"We went for it," says Shreve.
For the bingo, the front lawn of the high school will be transformed into a game board - 3,025 squares measuring 3 feet by 3 feet. A $10 donation will buy one of the numbered squares.
A cow provided by a local farmer is brought to the center of the board and left to graze. Wherever the cow's money-making manure falls first, the owner of the square wins $10,000.
If the cow happens to drop its bomb on two squares, a Cow Patty Bingo judge will enter the square and determine which square has the larger piece of the pie. If the pie draws a tie, each owner of the square gets $5,000. In case the cow is shy and can't deploy the troops in a two-hour window, all the tickets will be placed in a container and there will be a drawing.
Students and organizers are hoping they will not get a repeat of last year when the cow had done the doo-doo in seven minutes.
To strengthen this year's event, there will be a carnival behind the high school. School clubs and organizations will set up vending booths. The Spanish Club will sell nachos; the SADD club will serve mock alcoholic beverages; the art club will paint faces; and the school's band will play.
Although the Cow Patty Bingo is sponsored by the prom committee for the prom, the carnival and vending booths will help the other organizations.
"They'll be able to make a profit, also," says Shreve.
The Prom Committee is comprised of 50 students raising money for their May 3 prom.
Out of the 3,025 tickets for the bingo, 600 remain. Prom Committee members say the tickets aren't selling as well as last year, and they hope that improves.
Senior David Show says the main thing is to let people know that the Cow Patty Bingo is going on and it's a very nice attraction.
One reason tickets aren't selling as fast, according to sophomore Laura Hinton, is that last year's event went too fast. Show adds that there are great improvements this year.
Denise Shaw, a teacher at the high school and another organizer, says she has received a lot of positive responses.
"Everybody seemed to like it," says Shaw, adding that the ticket sales for this year started in mid-December, and "the sales normally begin slow, but then pick up."
The Second Annual Cow Patty Bingo will be held between 1 and 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 5, at the Connellsville Area High School. The cow will enter the lawn at 3 p.m. The bingo and the carnival are both free to enter.
For Cow Patty Bingo tickets, call 724-628-1350 or e-mail bshreve@casdfalcons.org .
