By Heather Park
A beginner’s guide to… BINGO EVENTS
Looking for a simple way to get all ages involved and raise money for your association? Eyes down for a full PTA pot!
P
erhaps one of the easiest events you can hold, the bingo night is a well-known school favourite. Keep it simple or adapt it to suit
the occasion with delightful décor and perfect prizes. Funds are raised by selling tickets to attend (which might include a number of bingo game tickets), both in advance or on the door. dinner and/or refreshments.
Lisa Philogene-Jones, PTFA Chair, Hill View Primary School, Bournemouth (660 pupils): ‘We have been running an Easter chocolate bingo night for the past three years – it’s a really successful event that doesn’t take much organising. We gather prizes through a mufti day
where we ask for donations of chocolate. We then put together hampers using small supermarket veg boxes, which are also donated. We have a spare prize bag in case two people win at the same time, and small eggs are saved to give to the children who attend. We bulk-buy tickets and dabbers from
Amazon at about £16 for 750 books of bingo tickets (enough for two events) and 30p each for bingo dabbers, which we sell for £1 on the night. A couple of parents volunteer as callers and they use an online bingo number generator.
some of the better chocolate donations, selling tickets both on the door and in the interval. We also make up around families who couldn’t attend. We do this the week after the event and draw the winners in the school playground in front of a large crowd. At our last event, we had 180 people attend, which is the maximum we can
44 SPRING 2018
pta.co.uk
advance, charging £1 for a bingo game ticket, and sold out well before the event! On the night, we offered extra game tickets for £1 a game or six games for £5. We made a total of £1,183 from our last bingo night! It’s such a popular event, but because
of space restrictions we have to limit numbers, so we’re planning to hold a Christmas bingo night this year, too.’
Richard Nurse, PTA Social Media Manager, Norris Bank Primary School, Heaton Norris, Stockport (399 pupils): ‘The purpose of our bingo night was to introduce new people to the school. Because of this we wanted to run an event that was affordable for everyone. We charged £5 per family, as some parents have up to three children supper, supplied by a local shop and sold For the prizes, we took advantage of
items left over from other events. We used wine from the summer fair as the prize for the adults, and sweets from the Halloween party for the children. This was key to ensuring we could keep costs low for the families, while still making wholesale, including colouring books as extra prizes for the children, and bingo cards and dabbers, which were all included in the price of the ticket. Because we had to place orders for
food, we sold tickets in advance. We had around 50 families attend. The event lasted for an hour and a half, including a half-hour interval for food. It was a fun and relaxed evening where everyone could get to know each other and the community came together. And we were able to raise £345.64 for the school!’
Step-by-step
Two months before: Agree the date and book the hall. Speak to the school to
agree a date for the mufti day for donations of prizes, if necessary. If serving food, choose a supplier and check prices with them to decide what you want to charge parents.
Four to five weeks before: Send out letters and booking forms (for tickets and food) in pupils’ book bags or via email. Post the event on your PTA’s Facebook page if you have one. Order bingo books and dabbers in bulk – find suppliers at
pta.co.uk/suppliers.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
