BINGO

 

I received a bingo game as a child. I still have it 50 years later. It's a rectangular box with holes in it; you shake it and the numbers come out. After we started playing a lot, my in-laws gave me a new, more sophisticated version. You turn the handle and release a number. I prefer the old one for sentimental reasons. I also have Pokeno, which is like bingo with playing cards.

 

We started playing bingo on every holiday once my mother started residing in assisted living. She loved it. We thought it helped keep her mind sharp. They would give her a coupon every time she won and she could trade it for prizes once a month. When we cleaned out her drawers upon her death, there were hundreds of them. Sadly, that year's Christmas gift that she didn't get to open was a bingo ornament I had created with her name on it.

 

When we play, winners get prizes I’ve collected but the winners usually make fun ot. There are the usual calendars, pens, T-shirts. Barrow contributes.

 

We have a rotating black unicorn pen holder. When one of our friends won it the first time, he didn't take it home, but put it on my mirror on my car. It's been to Baltimore and back. The winner keeps it for a little while and returns it.

 

I gave the idea for Black Tie Bingo, a fundraiser, to my friend at Goodwill Industries. I was taking a non-profit certificate course at LSU Shreveport and a girl helping conduct the class mentioned this was a fundraising event done in another state. I researched it. It's in its sixth year and has raised I’m guessing $30,000 to $40.000 per year. I was a celebrity caller last year. My bio said Mary Ann Van Osdell is a huge bingo fan, playing at her home with her family every holiday and collecting prizes all year. She is the legislative assistant to Sen. Barrow Peacock and has been society contributor for The Forum News for the past six years. She was a reporter and automotive columnist for The Times for 14 years. She has a B.A. in Journalism from LSU in Baton Rouge and is a huge Tigers football fan. She has been queen of the Mardi Gras Krewe of Aesclepius and president of Keep Bossier Beautiful and served on numerous publicity committees for non-profits. She has a self-published motivational book called “Hands Pointed UP.”

Themes have been black and white and green and Paris. I wanted one caller to do it in French. One of my favorite pictures was taken with a large cookie with bingo numbers. 

My dream is for the New Orleans Bingo Show Band to perform at that event. I'd also like for them to try reverse bingo, where if you are the last to go out, you win a prize.

 

There is an app created by an LSU graduate called Big Church Bingo. I have it. I wish I had thought of it.

 

Other types of bingo that can be incorporated that I've seen in publications includes Super Bowl bingo, Bachelor show, Obama State of the Union buzzwords, Latin, agriculture, Wizard of Oz, the royal wedding, various TV shows, White Person bingo.

 

I've called bingo at a Realtor fundraiser and at Remember in Shreveport When and at the church picnic. I got recognized for it. I created customized cards for RISW with famous Shreveport landmarks or history.

 

There are plenty of patterns that can be used besides straight bingo. You can create letters: CEFNOTUXY. And many diagrams: cake, pyramid, arrow, railroad tracks, cross, kite, bowtie, tic tac toe, champagne glass, paw, hammer head, frame, ladder, triangle.

 

I have a funny fact on almost every number to be creative rather than just saying the number.

 

I mentioned to the State Fair of Louisiana about doing cow pie bingo. There is a diagram on the field and where the first cow plops creates the winner, who has a corresponding ticket to that number.

 

Others to research: Bachelorette party bingo, road trip bingo, speed bingo, grocery bingo for college students, Christmas bingo.

 

I've read where 911 operators play bingo with types of incident calls.

 

I have a funny bingo comic strip.

A lady googled someone to call bingo at the hall for charity every Monday night from 5 to 9. It paid $10 an hour. I tried it once.

I hated it. It was hectic and chaotic and I did not get trained before it started. There is so much to keep up with. Cards to put in to show the shape of the bingo, putting the ball under a camera, setting a beeper to know how many seconds between calling numbers, what to say when you begin and end and verifying the bingo with a number and a computer. And I still have no idea what those extra cards were they were selling. There is some special calling with that. The guy training me did most everything. I should have had quiet time with him before it started, did not. I thought it would be fun, but it was stressful. They want me to come back, but I don’t want to. People spent hundreds of dollars to be there.