Hi Emily, a lot of these threads/questions are pretty old. If you want to get some current input about bingo nights, I'd suggest asking in our leaders FB group. Are you a member? If not, feel free to joinL
I know this was awhile ago but how much did you charge for cards? Did you have an entry fee or price per card. We are planning an adult only night as well. Thanks!
We have done three bingo nights this year to coincide with holidays or fun events and then the prizes are geared toward that. I have local businesses donate the bulk of the prizes and then we purchase the "theme" prizes. We did Turkey bingo around Thanksgiving and gave away lots of food items with the big prize being a basket complete with all of the fixing to complete a Turkey feast. We then did Valentine bingo which was mostly chocolate inspired gifts which were cheap and easy and this last bingo was May The 4th Be With You Star Wars Bingo with Star Wars themed prizes. We gave the option for students to come dressed as there favorite Star Wars character and entered them into a special prize drawing. We charged $5.00 per person with a $20.00 family cap and sold refreshments and snacks. It has been a good money maker for us and no family ever spends more than $20.00 to play except for snacks. Next year we are going to add Harry Potter Bingo. Good luck!
Love BINGO night at our school. We start off with the kids singing BINGO then play several different games of BINGO. We also tape under several chairs a cougar paw (our Mascot) that if you find one, it can be used for one free space on one game. Kids love this. We also do reverse BINGO where everyone stands, and when a number is called on your card, then you sit down. Last person standing is the winner. I also like to throw in other things such as fun trivia facts about the school and teachers, also BINGO. I also pick a number before we start and every time the number is called everyone has to do something like clap hands, yell oooooo, something fun! The more interactive it is, the more fun the players have.
We did not need a license as we did not have any big ticket items on our table. We also went to Walmart & got packets of bingo cards (disposable) & used corn for our bingo markers. We filled small drink cups with corn & placed a few on each table. Easy cleanup, everything gets thrown away or use the corn to feed squirrels, etc. After each person bingoed, we had our ambassadors (5th grade students that do special activities for the school as tour guides, etc) call back the numbers & then the one who bingoed received a chip (checker) to take to prize table to pick out their prize & hand the chip to the adult supervising the prize table. It gave order to everything so that the bingo caller can continue on.
