A major fundraiser to send Inuvik kids to the annual Rock the Rings tournament in Yellowknife was in danger of being cancelled due to a lack of volunteers, but reached its goal in the end.
An email from the Inuvik Curling Club sounded the alarm on Aug. 14, noting bingo would be cancelled if they couldn’t find the 14 volunteers needed to run it.
“Summer time is historically a difficult time to run bingos as a number of potential volunteers are on holidays,” noted Inuvik Curling Club president Nick Saturnino. “Cancelling the bingo last moment would mean losing out on valuable fundraising dollars. The fundraising dollars is used to send the kids to Yellowknife for the annual Rock the Rings event in February, so we would not like to have to cancel the bingo.”
Saturnino said last year the Inuvik Curling Club was able to send 80 kids to the curling tournament. The annual bingo hall is one of several fundraisers the club runs each year to keep the kids moving. The fundraiser will also be put towards important renovations for the club.
He noted the bingo needed 14 volunteers to operate, but added the club could pull the fundraiser off with seven volunteers if they’re willing to double shift. Shifts are three hours long, from 1 to 4 p.m and 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 21. The bingo itself has a $30,000 jackpot. Volunteers also would sell tickets for 50/50 and 60/40 draws.
Saturnino said although the bingo had a rocky start, enough volunteers arrived to help the curling club reach its fundraising goals.
“It was a little lower than expected but we’re not greedy,” he said with a laugh. “Thank you to the community for the ongoing support of junior curling.”
He said the club was now turning its attention to their big fundraiser, the Third Annual Curling Club Mega Raffle. Prizes will be $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000, with the draw in March.
Curling season is expected to begin in the first weeks of October.