Bingo bang-o: DL Jaycees gun bingo draws hundreds to Pavilion
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DETROIT LAKES — Whether it was for the love of the game, or the guns, hundreds of attendees played gun bingo in Detroit Lakes on Saturday, Oct. 8.
The event was hosted by the Detroit Lakes Jaycees at The Pavilion and was a follow-up to their more-than-successful spring event that was held at the Armory, which featured a standing-room-only crowd.
"I think it's a great turnout and I am super appreciative of the people that gave us a second chance because the first one was an amazing turnout that we weren't ready for," said Mandie Tretbar, DL Jaycees event organizer. "Now, we've moved venues and we can accommodate more people, and they came out. All the tables are out, and almost all the chairs are out."
She said gun bingo has quickly become the Jaycees' biggest fundraiser events of the year outside of the Northwest Water Carnival, which is kind of its own entity, she added. The group raised about $15,000 during their spring gun bingo event and expects a comparable amount to be raised once all the bills are paid from the event on Saturday.
"We have not only been able to give back to the community, but we've been able to resupply some things that (the DL Jaycees) need and fix some things on the trolley, like the brakes," said Tretbar. "We put a door in, if anybody saw that over the water carnival, now we have a door, so kids don't fall out and they re-sanded the benches and stained them, so there's not slivers everywhere."
Lakes Sport Shop provided the firearms for the bingo winners and also held raffle drawings for additional firearms.
"The first walk-up raffle sold out in 23 minutes, so that's pretty cool," she said.
One of the winners, Katie Sander, of Lake Park, Minn., said she is not usually the person to win at these events, but she went home with a North American Arms mini eagle revolver.
"It's kind of exciting," said Sander. "It's adorable. I'm excited to try it."
When asked about the negative stigma associated with gun bingo events, Sander said: "Everything is done safely. And you can't just be anybody to come in a grab a gun. They are not handing it to everybody. And, we all do our gun safety and I think everybody here has that knowledge, and we're alright."
Tretbar also said the Jaycees Gifts for Kids event this December should be a memorable one with some of the gun bingo funds being used to buy gifts for children in need.
"This should be buying some pretty nice gifts for a lot of kids in the area," she said.
A full-service bar, kettle corn and Wood Fire Pizza were all on hand to provide food and beverages for the event.
