OGUNQUIT — There has never been a shortage of pride and color in Ogunquit. A rainbow crosswalk guides pedestrians on Main Street, and dozens of Pride flags fly from Victorian revivals at every corner.

Recently, a new source of whimsical pride has made a home in town: a collection of 6-foot-tall tin rooster sculptures that belong to 6-year-old Pyper LeBlanc, who has autism.

The LeBlancs’ displaying of their daughter’s decorative comfort animals has prompted fines from Ogunquit officials over the past two months. The town says the tin roosters are unauthorized advertising for the family’s Route 1 restaurant, The Omelette Factory — which the LeBlancs dispute.

Now, in an act of solidarity, other business owners and residents across Maine are “fostering” Pyper’s roosters. They’re dotted along Route 1 for miles, some of them themed, others replicas of one of Pyper’s favorite floral designs.

And Pyper’s roosters are starting to become a wider symbol in support of autism awareness.

Half a mile down from The Omelette Factory, a rooster peers over the white-fenced balcony of a seafood restaurant called Rose Cove. Next door, an identical one greets visitors as they walk into Treehouse Taqueria. The Ogunquit Memorial Library has one proudly displayed. So does a Haffner’s gas station a few miles down the street.

Pyper’s father, Dave LeBlanc, said the idea to have others display the roosters came from his friend Sam Morse. They were having a drink one day when Morse reminded him of a core piece of Pyper’s story.

“‘Well, wasn’t Pyper a foster child?’” LeBlanc recalls Morse saying. “A light went off instantly. I mean a huge lightbulb, lightning in my brain, and I was like, ‘Oh snap, Batman, we’re onto something here.’”

Morse offered to foster the first rooster, which he bolted to a tree stump in front of his house. Countless others have followed in his footsteps.

‘WE’RE JUST DONE’

The Omelette Factory is attached to the LeBlancs’ home. They’ve been displaying the birds on their lawn for three years because they comfort Pyper.

But in June, town officials began fining the LeBlancs, telling them the roosters violated an ordinance prohibiting business signage in front of a home. The family is adamant that the roosters are not meant to promote The Omelette Factory and have been trying to find a solution with the town ever since.

LeBlanc initially piled the sculptures in his backyard, out of sight, and abided by a strict two-rooster exception that the town granted as a disability aid. He even bolted the sculptures to his home to make them a permanent fixture. But after racking up over $1,000 in fines, nothing has worked.

“The code enforcement officer is still very standoffish with us,” LeBlanc said. “We’re just done dealing with him.”

Asked last month about the family’s conflict with the town, Assistant Town Manager Mandy Cummings said the town “does not have the authority to disregard either the ordinances adopted by voters, or the conditions and decisions established through the public zoning board of appeals process,” and that officials would not be commenting on the matter any further.

Rose Cove owner Alexander Lumenello said he, like many others, was moved and inspired by the viral news coverage of Pyper’s story. So, he decided Rose Cove should show some support. The LeBlancs happily lent him one of their 24 roosters.

One of the LeBlanc family’s original roosters keeps watch over Main Street in Ogunquit on the deck of Rose Cove. (Isabelle Oss/Staff Writer)

“I think that a town ordinance shouldn’t interfere with a child’s happiness, but I guess the issue is that it was marketing or signage, which I also think is silly,” Lumenello said.

So far, the town hasn’t approached Rose Cove about its rooster, and Lumenello has no plans to let it fly the coop anytime soon.

FLYING OFF SHELVES

The outpouring of support has been so overwhelming that the LeBlancs have run out of their own roosters to lend — and have started buying dozens more. LeBlanc said he’s put close to $10,000 toward the effort.

An employee at the Tractor Supply Co. in Sanford, where the LeBlancs buy most of their roosters, said the store has had to source close to 40 roosters from other locations because the local demand caused a shortage.

Tractor Supply’s website lists the 6-foot models for $149, on sale from $249.

Bob Morrell, the co-owner of Wheels N Waves surf shop in Wells, scored one of the original 24 roosters.

“It just seems so ridiculous that they were getting fined for something so petty,” Morrell said. “You kind of think Ogunquit would be an open-minded town, which they haven’t been.”

A gingerbread-themed rooster looks over Route 1 in Wells on Tuesday, joined by another green rooster in the distance. (Isabelle Oss/Staff Writer)

In turn, he said, neighboring Wells has been incredibly welcoming to the roosters. It’s become the new home to most of the original roosters because some Ogunquit residents are afraid they could face similar repercussions from the town, Morrell said.

Pyper was sad to lose most of her roosters when the town told her family they could only display two at a time. Now, her father said she lights up when she sees them around town. He does, too — but there’s also a new feeling of responsibility that comes with it.

“We’ve never had a symbol that could be associated with autism that actually stuck,” LeBlanc said.

The autism awareness community once used a puzzle piece, and more recently an infinity symbol, which have both proven to be controversial, he said.

What started as improper advertising in the eyes of Ogunquit officials has become a new autism awareness symbol for thousands. LeBlanc has even received messages about people displaying roosters in New Zealand.

“That’s very powerful, humbling; it’s very scary at the same time. It’s like, ‘Wow, wait a minute, this was just our little stuffy rooster we bought her,’ you know?” LeBlanc said with a laugh.

The family has moved on to what LeBlanc is calling “the lemonade phase.” One day when Pyper was sad about her roosters, he sat down with her, and they squeezed lemons from The Omelette Factory to make lemonade.

It started out tart and yucky, he said. Then, he gave Pyper a cup of sugar, adding some little by little until it was perfect.

“And that’s where we’re at now. We started with lemons from the town, and we got to this place where it started getting a little sweeter,” LeBlanc said.