Flock to West Acton for some Flamingo Bingo

If you’ve been looking for robins to announce the change of seasons, you may have the wrong bird.

This year, in West Acton, flamingos are the sure sign of spring. 

“That’s Rainbow Flamingo,” Margot Kimball said as she walked around the Art for All studio and pointed out the bedecked birds. “We have Union Jack Flamingo, with a little crown, and this latest one is Nesting Unicorn Flamingo, and she will have some eggs.”

Flamingo Bingo is this year’s Art for All scavenger hunt, part of the annual Spring into West Acton Day event on May 17.

Kimball said the hunt began four years ago when people were still socially distancing. “People couldn’t come into the studio that much,” she said. “The idea of the scavenger hunt was, ‘let’s just get people walking around the village.’”

‘Easy and fun’

Prior scavenger hunt themes were train cars, flowers, and pollinators, all with an educational aim. Kimball said that in choosing this year’s theme, organizers wanted to keep it “easy and fun.” 

“I suggested a template,” she said. “People all start with one, and it’s the same shape, but each artist can do whatever they want. Then someone said, ‘pink plastic yard flamingos’ and we realized flamingo rhymes with bingo, and bingo is like a scavenger hunt.”

Flamingo Bingo has two scorecards, with 20 flamingos each, for participants to find. One scorecard is for more obvious installations — in storefront windows, perhaps, or outdoors. The other card is for those a bit more hidden inside village businesses themselves. Completed cards become raffle tickets and go into a drawing for prizes donated by West Acton businesses. 

Scorecards can be picked up at the businesses or downloaded from the library website. The game runs until May 17. 

“Spring into West Acton goes until 3 o’clock, and at 3 o’clock the flamingos are going to flock to the poetry phone,” Kimball said. “We’ll have the raffle drawing there.” 

Participants don’t have to be present to win. 

Inspiring collaboration

In her six years as founder and director at large of Art for All, Kimball has assembled a network of artists, 22 of whom came together to make the 40 birds. 

“People have gotten to know us,” she said. “I’m so excited when I find someone who likes to make stuff … and I try to make a note like, ‘Oh, they’re good at painting,’ or, ‘Oh, they like to build stuff.’”

Kimball said though they’ve had many collaborative projects, this has been the most “inspiring and joyful for the artists.” 

“You’ve got the flamingo … so you don’t have to figure out the whole thing,” she said. “Here it is. But then you have so much leeway. There’s so much creativity involved. … And then the fact that it’s Flamingo Bingo — it loosens people up.” 

Spring into West Acton will be held from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on May 17. It’s organized as a family-friendly day that features music, arts and crafts, sidewalk sales, a Green Thumb plant sale, and refreshments. Flamingo Bingo Cards are available at West Acton businesses and the Fowler Library and can be downloaded at concordlibrary.org/flamingo-bingo.