One in 20,000 find: Third-grader discovers rare botanical five-leaf clover in Raymond

Raymond Elementary student Chase Street
shows a five-leaf clover he found at his home
in Raymond earlier this month. The odds of
finding a five-leaf clover are estimated at
20,000 to 1. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE

By Ed Pierce

If there was ever a time to place a bet in a Powerball drawing offered by the Maine Lottery, now might be it for an 8-year-old Raymond boy and his family.

Chase Street, a third-grader at Raymond Elementary School, beat the odds of 20,000 to 1 a few weeks ago and discovered a five-leaf clover outside his house. His quest to find a four- or five-leaf clover began in June when his mother, Karlie Rouzer, showed him a story in The Windham Eagle about a Windham Public Works driver, Dave Rampino, who found four four-leaf clovers and a five-leaf clover in a patch outside his workplace.

His mother said that Chase is an inquisitive student and is curious about all kinds of things, including clover, which grows naturally throughout Maine.

“Chase is always eager to explore,” Rouzer said. “He likes gardening, hiking and finding things. We went on vacation this summer to Sturdivant Island and he found what looks like a fossil in a rock there.”

For the past few months he’s searched the grounds at his school and in nearby fields to try and find a four-leaf clover, but actually he should have been checking a little closer to home.

“It was in the late afternoon on a weekend earlier this month and I was looking in a patch of rocks and well-shaped clover at home,” Chase said. “I jumped over the porch into the patch to talk to my Daddy when I looked down and saw it. At first, I thought it was a four-leaf clover, but it was really a five-leaf clover instead.”

He showed the lucky clover to his mother, his father Chris Street, and his brother, Aiden Street, 12, and they were all thrilled with his extraordinary discovery.

“My mother looked it up and found that the odds of finding a four-leaf clover are about 10,000 to 1 and that the odds of finding a five-leaf clover are about 20,000 to 1,” Chase said. “My brother told me if the odds are 20,000 to 1, then we probably have three five-leaf clovers still out there.”

As Chase wondered what to do with his lucky discovery, his mother posted about his find on Facebook’s Windham Community Board and she was hoping to find someone who could encapsulate the clover as a keepsake for her son.

“When no one came forward to do that, we decided to just go ahead with a more traditional method and press it in a book,” Rouzer said.

She said Chase isn’t stopping with finding a lone five-leaf clover and he continues to search everywhere he goes to uncover others.

“He told me ‘Mommy I want to find more’ and I just think it’s really cool that this has fueled his interest in it and it’s grown even more over the summer,” she said.

According to legend passed down over time, the four-leaf clover is an extremely rare variation of the three-leaf clover and is thought to bring good luck to those who find one.

By tradition, each leaf of the four- and five-leaf clovers are thought to be symbolic, standing for faith, hope, love and luck and in the case of the five-leaf clover, wealth. It’s said that St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, used the three leaves of an Irish clover, also known as a shamrock, to explain the separation of God with the Holy Trinity, with one leaf for the Father, another for the Son and and the third for the Holy Spirit.

The Irish also believe that those who discover a five-leaf clover will actually enjoy more luck and financial success than those who find a four-leaf clover because it is much rarer in nature.

Superstition claims lucky clovers are included in the Bible and when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, Eve took with her a four-leaf clover to remind her of what it was like in paradise.

According to Chase, he mentioned his discovery to several friends from school, but isn’t sure what many of his classmates will think about his find.

“I don’t think they’ll believe me that much,” he said.

Along with looking for four- and five-leaf clovers, Chase says he collects rocks and wants to someday become a geologist or an archeologist.

“I just think finding stuff is cool,” he said.

His advice for others looking for lucky clovers is simple.

“I’d tell them to not give up and keep your head down,” Chase said. <

Lucky streak: Windham Public Works driver discovers patch of four-leaf clovers

Dave Rampino, a truck driver for Windham's Public
Works Department, discovered four four-leaf clovers and
a five-leaf clover in a patch of ground near the Public
Works truck yard on June 4. He says he's always
looked for four-leaf clovers since he was a child.
PHOTO BY ED PIERCE

By Ed Pierce

Dave Rampino isn’t much of a betting man, but maybe he should be. On June 4, the Windham Public Works Department truck driver hit the jackpot in finding something many search a lifetime for -- a four-leaf clover.

Rampino, who’s worked for the Town of Windham for 17 years, was moving a snow plow at the Public Works facility when he saw a patch of clover near the curb. Stopping to look through the clover patch, he found not one, two, three, but actually four four-leaf clovers and one five-leaf clover in a span of about five minutes.

“I was doing a walk-around of my plow truck when I saw the clover patch,” Rampino said. “I always looked for four-leaf clovers as a kid and thought I’d look over there too.”

Legend has it that St. Patrick of Ireland once found a four-leaf clover and gave it to his friends telling them that it was put there by God with the first three leaves representing faith, hope and love and the fourth leaf representing luck. St. Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, or three-leaf clover, to his followers to describe God’s Holy Trinity.

Ancient Celtic priests of Ireland believed that by carrying a three-leaf clover or shamrocks, they could ward off evil spirits and in time the shamrock became forever associated as a symbol associated Ireland and the Irish people. Four-leaf clovers were described in Celtic literature as “magical” and capable of producing instantly good fortune if discovered, and finding a five-leaf signified that enormous wealth was coming your way.

The website www.thescienceexploer.com estimates that the odds of finding a four-leaf clover at 10,000 to 1 and lists the odds of finding a five-leaf clover at more than 1 million to 1. Scientists say because clover plants do not naturally produce four-leaf plants genetically, that’s what makes four-leaf clovers a rarity.

According to Rampino, the morning of June 4 was the first time he looked through the patch of clover near the truck yard since the Windham Public Works Department moved into a new 30,000 square-foot facility on Windham Center Road last year.

“I think all this dirt was brought in here and the area was reshaped. I don’t know what they used to seed it with,” he said. “This particular patch might actually be wild clover coming out of the nearby woods, but I’m really not sure about that.”

Looking for lucky four-leaf clover has become a ritual for Rampino over the years, even though he’s not Irish.

“I’m as Italian as you can get,” he said. “In my job, I work on the side of the road a lot and in a lot of ditches. I guess that looking for four-leaf clover has become a second instinct of mine wherever I go.”

He said he plans to give the lucky clovers to younger family members to bring them luck and keep one of them for another idea he had.

“Think I’m going to go out and buy some Powerball tickets,” Rampino said. “Finding these four-leaf and five-leaf clovers is really lucky and you just never know.” <