“What the heck is the deal with all those flamingos?” We get the question all the time, and its a great question with a fun answer.
The story starts in 2012 when Preferred Insurance was celebrating our 100th anniversary. As part of that celebration, we decided to make 2012 the “Year of Giving Back”. We started Quotes4Causes (giving $10 to charity for every quote we give) and vowed to get more involved in our great community and raising money for local charities.
One of our favorite charities was and still is Serving Friends And Families Ministries, and we were looking for a way to raise a little money for them. Hillary Staugler was doing an internship with us at the time and I asked her to look for some ideas. She surfed the web for a little while till she found something crazy enough to get my attention.
Flamingo Flocking Is Born
And this is what Hillary came up with!
We created 10 flocks of flamingos and different volunteers at different charities were in charge of each flock. They started by putting them in a few yards, along with a sign saying “You’ve Been Flocked! Call Preferred Insurance”. When the people would call in we would tell them that for a small donation of $20 to the charity, we would send out our “technicians” to remove the flamingos. However, we don’t have any cages for the flamingos, so they needed to tell us whose yard the technicians should move the flamingos to…and the whole cycle would start over again.
That summer, with the help our great community, our lovely pink ladies raised over $3,000. They also became our mascot and gave our agency a new favorite color – pink of course. The flamingos still go “flocking” for multiple organizations, and they pretty successfully annoy enough people to not be forgotten.
The neatest thing about this story however, is how the experience changed us, Preferred Insurance Center. When 2012 – “The Year Of Giving Back” came to an end we knew it had been a great year. All our fundraising and getting involved had given us a new purpose and energy. We were better people, in a better agency, with a better attitude. There was no going back.
From 2012 to the present (2022) our partners, clients, neighbors and flamingos have helped us raise or give over $250,000 to local charities. Our new attitude has put smiles on a lot of faces, and we’ve become a little famous for how we answer the phone. It’s been a crazy ride on an awesome pink rollercoaster here in God’s theme park we call Life. If it sounds like fun, give us a call, we’d love to have you come along for the ride. Just hop on, put your hands in the air, and scream like a girl till you’re stomach hurts from laughing.
.
