By Steve Hubrecht
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The Invermere and Radium Rotary Club have been joining forces with other Rotary Clubs across the Kootenays to hold an online community bingo night each Friday. This past New Year’s Eve, an Invermere resident was the lucky winner of the online bingo night’s special New Year’s Eve event, earning a $10,000 prize.

The online community bingo events began in Golden. The local Rotary Club there  had seen most of its fundraising revenue dried up once the COVID-19 pandemic began, because it could no longer hold its typical fundraising events, Golden Rotary Club president Isabelle Simard told the Pioneer. The club had heard of online bingo and decided to give it a try.

“Within a couple of weeks, we were doing it,” said Simard.

The Golden club continued to run the online bingo weekly into the summer and was raising some money, but found that the ratio of volunteer effort versus funds raised wasn’t as rewarding as it could be. So in July and August, the Golden club decided to see if it could band together with other Rotary Clubs in the region and have a Kootenay-wide online community bingo. The Invermere and Radium Rotary Club jumped on board right away, followed shortly after by the Cranbrook Rotary Club. The event now involves 10 Rotary Clubs from across the Kootenay region and has become a huge success.

“It’s so popular now, that the bingo cards go up on Sunday and by Monday at lunch time they are all sold out,” said Simard. “It’s fun, it’s a great way to connect virtually with others, it’s for a good cause, and it seems to really be cheering everybody up on Friday night. We have people tuning in even if they don’t have a bingo card, because they want to be part of the fun.”

“We had zero fundraisers in the last year, up until the online bingo, and that does have an impact on our programs, such as our scholarships, and the projects we do in the community,” Invermere Rotary Club president Yvonne Redeker told the Pioneer, outlining why the Invermere club was quick to join up with the Golden club on the initiative. “We’ve been amazed at how quickly it’s grown. It’s huge. And it’s helped bring our communities together.”

The bingo nights are held every Friday at 6 p.m., draw 500 participants throughout the Kootenay, and usually go for about two hours. They operate on a 50-50 model, with half the money raised each week ($10,000) going to the Rotary Clubs involved, and the other half of the money (another $10,000) usually distributed to winners across five games. The New Year’s Eve special Progressive Jackpot game had one single winner who took home a $10,000 cash prize.

That New Year’s Eve winner was Invermere resident Carol Stober, who was playing at home on the night of Jan. 31 along with her family.

“I was stunned. No words came out of my mouth,” Stober told the Pioneer, detailing her reaction to winning. “My daughter Laurie was holding the card. The minute they called the last two numbers — 58 and 60 — she started jumping up and down. I was too stunned to say anything. But my granddaughters Emily and Jessie did all the hollering and jumping for me. They performed all night.”

The night was a lucky one indeed for the household: Stober’s son Don had already won $751 during the regular bingo contest, prior to the special contest.

“You could say we were on the map on New Year’s Eve,” said Stober with a chuckle.

Stober thanked the Rotary Club for organizing the event, adding she knows many other people up and down the Columbia Valley that have immensely enjoyed the Friday night online bingo events, which Stober feels help people socialize (digitally) and help connect the various Kootenay communities participating.

“It’s a regular Friday night do around our house, and I gather in plenty other houses too,” Stober told the Pioneer. “It’s absolutely phenomenal and I really appreciate what they’re doing. It’s exactly what people need.”

The participating Rotary Clubs divide up the $10,000 raised each week based on bingo cards sold (so if, for instance, if 15 per cent of bingo cards sold in a given week are sold in Invermere, the Invermere Rotary Club gets 15 per cent of the $10,000 raised), and each club uses the money for various charitable projects and programs in its community.

To find out more about the online bingo night visit the Invermere B.C. Rotary Club page on Facebook.