Ninth annual Frontenac Frolic maintains its popular attractions while adding new ones

Craig Bakay | Aug 07, 2019

One thing that has set the Frontenac Frolic apart from similar summer gatherings is the annual Cow Flop Bingo.

For those unfamiliar with the Frolic, it’s an annual summer fundraiser held at Bedford Hall to raise money for the Bobs & Crow Lakes Foundation. It includes things like a silent auction, bake table, used books table, flea market, petting zoo, Little Ray’s Reptiles and displays from the fire department.

For those unfamiliar with the Bingo, here’s the “scoop on the poop” as the association puts it.

A field is divided up into 1,600 squares, with each square assigned a number. Players purchase tickets ($10 each or three for $20).

A cow is led onto the field to graze. When it poops, whoever holds the ticket for the square it poops in, gets $1,800. The second poop nets a ticket holder $900 and a third $500.

Now, for a flop to be “real,” it must be three inches in diameter and it does happen that it lands on a line (in which case the judges determine how the winnings will be split).

That’s pretty much it.

But, there are other things going on as well.

“Our silent auction has some really nice items this year,” said volunteer Mary Seaton, who has overseen the auction for nine years now, since the Frolic began. “We have everything from a chain saw to fine art such as the painting from Kingston artist Jordan Hicks.

“We usually get between 20 and 50 items for the auction and this year, we have 33.”

One new attraction this year was the inclusion of the Boot’n’Bonnet (British) Car Club out of Kingston. As one might expect, this is a club dedicated to MGs and Jaguars, as well as some more obscure brands.

President Ken Morgan said club member Larry Henderson, who owns Green Bay Heritage Cabins on Bobs Lake, talked his compatriots into coming out to the Frolic.

“It can be difficult to get people on a long weekend,” Henderson said. “We left our kids to look after the cabins.”