Cooper Dean of Valrico is a student at Lithia Springs Elementary. In November 2020, she won a nationwide contest with her submission of Chicken Poop Bingo, a tabletop game she came up with after seeing a real-life depiction while camping.
After winning the contest, she was contacted by one of the sponsors about potentially licensing the idea and bringing it to market.
“Which is exactly what has happened,” said Cooper’s dad, Ryan Dean. “More than 18 months after Cooper created the prototype, Goliath Games, a global toy company, is launching the commercial version this month in stores across the U.S. as well as several countries around the world.”
The Goliath team has been great about including Cooper in the development process via Zoom calls and even put her picture on the back of the box.
“Needless to say, she is very excited to finally see it hit store shelves,” Dean said. “My wife, Jennifer, and I are simply happy for Cooper. The whole thing has been a great experience for her. We knew it was a long shot that she’d win the contest, as they get so many entries, but once she decided to do it, we wanted her to put in her best effort regardless of the outcome. Having the game actually sitting on shelves is pretty surreal.”
The premise is for the chicken to ‘poop’ out candy onto a master bingo board and players try to fill up the squares on their card, just like in a bingo hall. The winner gets candy, which adds to the fun.
In the real-life version, chickens are enticed by players with feed to come to a square and mark it while Cooper uses a windup chicken she got in an Easter basket that waddles around the board and makes deposits on the numbers.
“Cooper still comes up with games all the time,” Dean said. “You can make a game out of almost anything, which is actually a great brainstorming exercise to get ideas flowing. Her younger brother, Brooks, also has a game that he wants to create, so we’ll see how that goes.”
Cooper’s game can be found in Target, Walmart, Kohl’s, JCPenney and Bass Pro Shop. It’s also available on Amazon.
