Big Bingo brings students a night of wins

Mackenzie Byerlee

Features Editor

The Adanti Student Center Ballroom was filled with excitement, fun prizes and friendly competition at Big Bingo on Aug. 25.

Hosted by the Programs Council, Big Bingo brought around 450 students together to celebrate the start of the semester. Theater and political science major Tanner Loomis, a sophomore and nighttime programmer, shared that bringing students together is the reason why ProCon continuously hosts bingo games.

“We try to make it so community building actually happens, because that’s what Southern is all about,” Loomis said.

In addition to creating a space where students could connect, Big Bingo allowed for students to compete for prizes including a JBL speaker, an electric scooter and a Roku TV over various rounds.

What set this particular bingo apart from others was that Interim President Sandra Bulmer was in attendance and giving away her own prizes. The two options were the ability to be Bulmer’s plus one at any event of the winner’s choosing and her parking spot for the week.

With such highly coveted prizes at stake, the room quickly became intense. Every round had the crowd cheering and hoping to win big.

“I wanted the chance to win something fun; I wanted the TV,” nursing major Keara DeMatteo, a freshman, said.

Bingo itself took place on the players’ phones, as everyone had to scan a QR as they walked into the event. The numbers were generated from the website and were projected on the screen in the front of the room.

To ensure that every player was honest, after someone declared they had won, the ProCon programmers checked the card number in their system and projected it to show the entire room whether that player had gotten bingo or not.

Adding in an even more competitive element into the game, there were multiple rounds in which there was a tie. As a result, the two players had to play rock, paper, scissors in order to determine who the winner was.

One of the night’s winners included nursing major Aurora Anne Sosa, a senior.

“I was planning on buying a switch for my friend, so I’m very excited that I won it,” Sosa said.

All of the winners, including Sosa, were very enthusiastic about their wins. Some even ran up to the stage to collect their prizes which made it clear how committed students were to the game.

Evening events like this give students a place to go and have fun whether it is in groups or by themselves.

This was the first of many that ProCon hosts throughout the semester, keeping the same main focus in mind of connecting students and making them feel a sense of belonging.

Having such a high number of attendees at Big Bingo showed how many people enjoy these competition based events, especially when they involve prizes that cater to college students.

“I come every time they have bingo,” Sosa said. “If they were hosting another, I would definitely come back.”