Local teachers add new spark to bingo scene

The game of bingo recently made a resurgence in the Holyoke Lions Club on Sundays. The Sunshine Committee, charged with organizing activities for the teachers, decided the game might be a fun outing and a group of teachers agreed. September was the first month the group attended a game. 

Games manager Helen Miller recalled when the group arrived, saying, “Oh, the rowdier bunch of girls that started attending? Yes they’ve definitely added a little more excitement to the games.” The “girls,” as Miller referred to them, arrived in classic bingo attire with transparent visor hats. 

“The girls brought me a hat too,” Miller said, “so I put ‘BINGO’ on my hat and now I wear it to every game.”

Beyond adding an activity for teachers to do together, the group’s impact from their attendance has not gone unnoticed. Bingo games, especially, felt the brunt of shutdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. The majority of people attending the games are from the elderly population, Miller said, who were the first to worry about the pandemic and thus became isolated after its start. Attendance hit an all-time low, she continued, with their main demographic afraid to go out and socialize.

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