Cinthia Villarreal
This past weekend, the Boys and Girls Club of Walker County hosted their second Oktoberfest Bingo and we, of course, could not miss such an exciting opportunity to let out our competitive spirits and to help sponsor such a good cause.
Proceeds–which totaled approximately $113,000–were raised to support the operations of the Boys and Girls Club, which promotes the intellectual, emotional, and physical growth of young people in our community.
For us, this was not only a great opportunity to support the community in a small way, but also to see our friend and Boys and Girls Club CEO, Michelle Spencer.
With this in mind, we sponsored our own table and invited our friends Jacob Wessels, Caitlin Nortonen, and Maggie Betancourt along.
We couldn’t afford a sponsorship as generous as The Cafe Texan, Bill and Diane Green, First National Bank, Community Service Credit Union, North Houston Cancer Clinics, North Lakes Pain Consultants, The Huntsville Item, Wiesner Huntsville, or Wischnewsky Dodge (see the full list of generous sponsors here), but our sponsorship came with raffle tickets, and we put our tickets in pots of most interest to us, including: $25 gift card to Barnes and Nobles (where Olivia dropped all her tickets), a $20 gift card to Louise and Oletta’s (one of our favorite local restaurants), Double Dave’s gift card, and a scavenger hunt.
As the crowd settled, and the emcee, Brad Sherman, expertly guided us along, we took our seats for the highlight of the night: bingo! With a card in one hand and a marker in the other, we were ready to test our luck.
Sadly after a few of the rounds, we realized how much luck we lacked. Hope was decreasing rapidly at our table when Chrissy jumped up and yelled “Bingo!” She won a party package to Tom Foolery’s for axe throwing and a buffet!
At first, the emcee thought there was a mistake on the card. Not knowing Chrissy, he couldn’t have known that you don’t argue with her over details, and in the end, her bingo card was validated.
What we know is that Chrissy is an axe-throwing veteran.
In her generous way, she invited the table to an evening of axe-throwing at Tom Foolery’s, and shortly thereafter, in an amazing coincidence, Trey Wharton stopped by to offer everyone health and life insurance…
In between the bingo rounds, the raffle winners were announced. We all got our tickets out and held them as if they held the fortune to all our hardships. Luck seemed at our table’s vicinity as Saara’s ticket won a car detailing…
…and Caitlin won a Let’s Roam scavenger hunt date night.
The live auction also took place in between the games. Having never seen an auction before, I found it quite impressive to see how fast the auctioneer spoke.
Further, a silent auction was taking place.
A few of the prizes included a Sam Houston swag basket, a Michael Kors purse, a yoga set bundle, and a jewelry set that Professor Yawn and Stephanie ended up winning!
As the rounds progressed, so did our pile of losing cards which truly terminated any hope we had left–but not our fun!
With the night coming to an end, Michelle Spencer and the Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors appreciated everyone’s attendance to the event by acknowledging that more than $100,000 had been raised!
We might not have won the prizes we wanted, nonetheless, we left the venue with huge smiles on our faces knowing that we helped raise money for a significant organization in our community.
Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics 