Los Al Drumline Heads to National Championship with a Little Bovine Help

It was no ordinary game of Bingo.

The stakes were high—there were hundreds of dollars to be won. The players studied the chart, and a referee was on hand to keep the players honest.

They waited excitedly as it took more than 20 minutes for the first square to be called, but with a loud “Moo” and a plop, the game was on.

Saturday brought cow chip bingo to Los Alamitos High School. Dozens of families gathered to cheerfully root for cows to poop as part of a fundraiser to send the Griffins’ Drumline to Dayton, Ohio in April for the national championship. The award-winning drumline has a shot at the championship, and the 29 drummers sold 1,826 $5 bingo tickets to help pay for hotel and airfare for the trip.

The game is simple. Drumline boosters created a grid with a square for each ticket sold. Next, they measured grids on the grass, and volunteers led three cows across the field. Each time one of the cows dropped a cow pie, someone won bingo.

“I didn’t realize cows were so frisky,” said Shelly Root as she watched volunteers attempt to lead three unruly cows by rope. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

But Deanne Ruby has.

Ruby’s son is in the Drumline, and Saturday marked the third year that boosters hosted cow chip bingo.

This year, Ruby volunteered as a cow guide.

“It’s an expensive trip, and this is a good fundraiser,” she said. “But it’s taking a lot longer this year.”

Suddenly the crowd of onlookers erupted with excited cheers.

“That doesn’t count! That is not poop,” yelled one woman when a cow relieved its bladder.

Los Alamitos High School Principal Grant Litfin was on hand to officiate.

“I get to see and mark where the cow plops first,” Litfin said. “It’s one of the high points of my job. But, seriously, I think it’s a neat way to support the Drumline. I am from Minnesota and I grew up around cows, and I have never seen anything like this.”

The Drumline is a major point of pride for the school, he added.

“All of our arts programs are pretty well regarded, but the Drumline and choir pretty much set the standard. Those are hard working kids. There are times when they are here when I get here in the morning, and they are still here when I leave.”

Last year, the Drumline took ninth place in the national competition, and their supporters believe this could be the year they win it.

Since the fundraiser began two years ago, it has grown in popularity, said Janet Congel, the booster club’s Drumline representative.

“I have been contacted by different schools from all over the country wanting to know how to do it,” Congel said. “It is a lot of fun, and it is a good fundraiser.”