If you grew up with lawns and front gardens, it’s a safe bet that you also grew up with orange and pink plastic lawn flamingos.
Like itty-bitty red-hatted garden gnomes, and tiny statues of jockeys, lawn flamingos are a kitschy yard decor staple that had its heyday in the 60s and 70s.
These days, it’s a bit more unusual to find the signature pairs of flamingos on neighborhood lawns, but that may change before too much longer.
A trend has been developing in the past few years where people purchase lawn flamingos and proudly display them — for a cause.
The latest example comes from Weare, NH, where a young girl named Abby is fighting leukemia with the whole town by her side.
When Abby was diagnosed just last month, the community responded by buying up flocks of the plastic birds, with the proceeds going to Abby’s medical expenses.
Now, the ornaments can be found all over town, except, briefly, for Colby Road after a petty act of vandalism.
Scroll through below to see how the remorseful perps responded just days later.
When Abby Van Dyke was diagnosed with leukemia just weeks ago, her community in Weare, NH, immediately rallied.
Folks in the community, kept in the loop by Abby's mother Marlene, knew that the seventh-grader would be facing lots of scary medical obstacles as doctors sought to figure out her best treatment plan.
With that in mind, the community started the #AbbyStrong Army, where friends and neighbors could join together to rally around the tough little girl.
After Abby decided to change the color of her braces to orange, the color of leukemia awareness, folks in her army were struck with an awesome idea.
In order to help Abby's family pay some of her medical expenses, they would sell orange lawn flamingos at $10 each, with the profits going into the Van Dykes' medical fund.
The idea was a huge success, and "flocks" began appearing all over Weare in order to spread the word.
Before long, the intrepid flamingos were appearing everywhere!
They spread throughout Weare and surrounding communities in New Hampshire and New England.
Before long, a few even ended up farther afield, like this flamingo that ended up at NYC's Fordham University thanks to an Abby supporter visiting the school.
Still, even as most folks made a point of spreading the word about the importance of the flamingos, there were still some who didn't get the message — most notably, the petty thieves who absconded with a flock of flamingos at the end of August.
The flamingos disappeared from a lawn on Colby Road, much to the consternation of the many folks in and around Weare doing everything possible to drum up support for Abby.
Word of the theft spread quickly on social media.
Then, just as quickly as the flamingos disappeared, they returned!
The thieves, who appear to be kids or teenagers themselves, had a crisis of conscience when they realized the symbolism of the flamingos, and they immediately did the right thing.
In addition to returning the ornaments, they left a note with the Weare Police Department, along with a small donation.
It reads, in full:
Dear Abby, Family, & Friends,
We are truly sorry for our actions and had no idea what the flamingos on Colby Road symbolized. We would never have taken them.
Please know that we returned all the flamingoes we took. We did not go around town all over the place they we were only taken on Colby Road. If others are missing that wasn't us.
We have enclosed a small donation hoping this will make a difference. Stay strong, you got this.
Again we are truly sorry for our actions and will never do anything like this again.
#AbbyStrong
The Weare Police Department took to Facebook to share the latest update in the case of the missing flamingos, and the response was immediate.
Hundreds of people liked the post, and it received tons of shares and comments from people in the community applauding the thieves for owning up to their mistake.
One commenter even noted, "I figured they didn't know the meaning. Someone raised these kids right to right their wrong. I respect this action. Thanks WPD and the Abby Army. We are all #abbystrong and most importantly a tight-knit community. We are #wearestrong"
In the meantime, while we can't condone the kids' action in choosing to steal in the first place, there are a couple of silver linings to the whole situation.
For one, Abby's Army got a small donation, and the culprits — hopefully — learned a valuable lesson about respecting other people's property.
For another, their theft and apology might draw even more attention to the cause, helping Abby's Army reach around the world.
If you'd like to be #AbbyStrong too, you can check out her Facebook page here!
And if you love the idea of a whole flock of flamingos carrying Abby toward her goal, make sure to SHARE with friends and family to spread the word!
