Annual Country Fair And Cow Plop Held In Swampscott

The 23rd Annual Country Fair and Cow Plop was held on Abbot Field at Clark Elementary School in Swampscott on Sunday. Despite the chilly wind conditions that day, the annual fundraiser proved to be a success.

“It’s the largest fundraiser of the year for the (Clark) school,” said current Parent Teacher Organization President Allison Duffy. “It helps supplement field trips and other programs and activities. It’s a real town-wide community event. We always have great entertainment, vendors, and great activities.”

The Country Fair and Cow Plop featured animal petting stations, miniature train rides for children, games and activities organized by the local YMCA, face painting, inflatable balloons, a disc jockey, a raffle, and even a magician.

“It’s another good turnout this year,” Duffy said. “Over the course of the day, we’ll end up getting around 1,000 people.”

“Of course, we want to keep doing this every year,” said PTO Treasurer Kim Martin-Epstein. “It’s fun and supports a lot of great school programs for the kids. We’ve got the petting zoo and the inflatables. The YMCA is doing games with the kids, and we’ve got a magician performing inside.”

The star attraction of the event just happened to be a one-and-a-half year old cow named Ellie, owned by Alysa Girardo of Reading, that children seemed to flock to most.

“It’s the second year we’ve brought her here,” said Girardo. “The kids like to pet her and feed her, and she poops for the cow bingo.”

Cow bingo is a game that consisted of squares drawn around Ellie’s pen. Participants would raffle-off to see which squares Ellie would poop into, and the person that had the square won a prize.

All the fun was nearly ruined when a participant was hit in the head with a sign that had blown over due the strong wind. While police, ambulance and firefighters arrived on the scene, the man proved to be only slightly injured.

Photo courtesy of Hoffman's Dairy Garden via Flickr