BY: BETH HENKEL Video Productions Specialist
When it comes to spreading love, a group from FUMCA takes it one step at a time. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say standing on one leg at a time. The “Flamingo Ninjas” group, as it has become known, is the brainchild of Betsy Eudy. When the pandemic lock-down began, she looked for ways to stay connected with her church. She remembered she had 25 pink plastic yard flamingos left over from a previous job, and began brainstorming with members of the Bible Journaling Group about how they could use them to bring a smile to the faces of church friends and others who needed some cheering. She shared her idea of “dropping” the flamingos for 24 hours in yards, and things just kind of took off from there. “We talk about the church and how it is not just the building. But what I’ve missed is walking up and down the hallways and seeing people. We just felt this was a type of safe outreach that we could go to our
10 • Spring–Summer 2021
church members and friends”, Eudy explains. The idea started simply with the first flamingo delivery April 18, 2020. “One thing led to another and we got up early on a Saturday morning and went up to Pastor Chris’, dropped the flamingos and were in and out in no time at all. I was so nervous if this was going to be appreciated,” Eudy said. FUMCA receptionist and event planner, Kathy Martin, played an important role confirming it was a terrific idea. "Kathy was intel on everything with the pastors. She sent me a text probably within an hour with a group shot of Chris and his family all in flamingo pose with their legs up, and I said, this is going to do it. Then we moved on to Pastor Ramiro and the Yoda sign was done for him and we started adding signs for the staff that I knew they would appreciate. Greg Haugen had one, I had some teacher signs for his wife and that’s how it started." Once the one-legged birds adorned the yards of the entire church staff, the Flamingo Ninjas were still on the move. "Our Rainbow Sunday School class has had several deaths in the last two years of spouses, so I said let’s do the spouses of our Rainbow Class." Then they visited the entire class. And more people were added to the list. "I think it was Randy Goode who said, y’all should keep doing this. He came on one drop where he literally had to scale the fence to Kathy Martin’s back yard because she was sitting in her front yard. We are very sly, I will tell you that.”
arlingtonmethodist.org