Lions of BHC host Meat Bingo for Sight

BULLHEAD CITY – Meat is popular, as evidenced by the sold-out Meat Bingo for Sight hosted by the Bullhead City Lions Club (BHC Lions) on Thu, Feb 16, with doors opening at 5 p.m., at the Anderson Ford Fieldhouse, 3663 Bullhead Parkway. In only its third year, it’s become “the largest BHC Lions fund-raiser of the year,” said Janis Young. Another indication of its popularity? Of the 200 tickets available, 168 were sold as tables ($175 for a table of eight) rather than individual tickets ($25).

It’s not just meat. “People are serious when they play Bingo; they want to be able to hear,” said Young, who calls the game. “They’re listening very carefully for what cards are called.” The game is a play on Bingo and each player gets two hands with three Meat Bingo cards on each. Young calls what she pulls from a deck of cards, and players use paper clips to mark their matches. Winners call “Meat!” instead of “Bingo!” after finding three matches, and then draw a numbered chip from a Runner. After a few rounds and the final numbered chip has been awarded, winners turn in their chips for the meat package that matches the chip number.

It’s not just Bingo. “It’s always hilarious,” said Young. “A family with young boys,

when they won, they were so excited. They were jumping up and down.”

People keep coming back, and “even some of the adults get pretty darn excited,” she added. There are a lot of winners. “Our goal is to have 75 percent of the crowd with an opportunity to win meat,” said Young. The included dinner is catered by Pro-Fit-Kitchin.

It’s not just fun. It’s a fund-raiser, remember? “Rafter S Cattle Ranch is how we get started,” said Young. The biggest of the BHC Lions annual events, it wouldn’t happen without the generous donations of meat and money. In addition to Rafter S Cattle Ranch of Kingman, Smart & Final, Mohave Electric Cooperative (MEC), Advance Auto, Smith’s, Safeway as well as other grocers and businesses set aside funds so the BHC Lions can shop for, well, meat. The silent auction has “wine baskets, game baskets, food baskets, an education-themed basket, even a lottery ticket basket,” said Young. The 50/50 adds to the BHC Lions’ coffers to help fund its mission (more on that later).

It’s not just businesses. The community chips in. “Interact Club, the younger kids out of Rotary,” said Young, are Runners stationed around the room who, in addition to being responsible for the chips, also have huge decks of playing cards, and they display matching cards as Young calls them. Individual contributions are generous and necessary. John and Connie Sharp donated space in their stand-alone freezer. “They cleaned out shelves so we can store our stuff as we buy it,” said Young. “We couldn’t do it without them.” She added:

• “Connie Catterall, at Fiesta RV, is making a gorgeous homemade quilt”
• “Terry Tomlinson, VP of BHC Legacy, bought a table”
• “The Heukers donated huge pieces of salmon” fresh from Alaska
• “Lions donated Omaha Steaks”

“We have a lot of generous people,” Young summarized.

But it is the BHC Lions’ mission. Last year, all 4,090 children in every “public, private and charter” school in the Mohave Valley were vision-screened for free by the BHC Lions. “Of those, 835 did not pass,” said Young. “We referred at least 20 percent” of students to further assistance, and then helped pay for that further assistance.

“Our big focus is that we want kids to be able to learn in school,” said Young emphatically. “Kids need to be able to see in order to learn. That’s the crux of it. That’s why we do what we do. That’s why we’re so passionate about.”

And that’s the meat of it.

Contact Young at 928-514-5062 or Young.Janis@yahoo.com or go to the Bullhead City Lions Club website: sites.google.com/site/bhclions.

Juliette Cowall