Let’s get to it. Sean Moore of Nacho Daddy, our beloved guest caller, coined a new word for us. How’s this … ”BINGOLATION”. Love it!

The evening started out almost like any other. We ate, we drank, and we greeted friends, old and new. Tim, Carole and Robin worked the room selling Bingo cards (necessary items if one really wants to get into the game), 50/50 and BIG Raffle tickets. Several representatives from our charity arrived and sat in the front of the restaurant. It was great to have them participate. Some were visually impaired, some not. Two beautiful young women dressed in colorful, traditional garb accompanied them.

Then, Sean ramped it up. Bingolation! He started calling the letters and numbers. Game 1 was won by Rosalie Elliot. The beautiful women delivered the gift bag and posed for a picture with the lucky winner. Game 2 was won by Rhonda Angelo. Same prize delivery system. How nice is that? The famous and fabulous Bill Kelly won Game 3 and Michelle Mayer won Game 4.

Now, ordinarily, we have halftime after Game 4, cause we’re halfway through. See how that works? This was the second time that Sean decided to have halftime after Game 5, which by the way was won by our own Dennis Smith. Dennis is a lucky guy. We’d had a fake Bingo during Game 5. Like the automaton I am, I cleared one card. No way to recover. Really, I must pay better attention.

It’s halftime. A hush did not come over the crowd … not yet. We ordered more drinks and food, bought a few more raffle tickets, talked, laughed. I complained about the unlucky cards I’d drawn. Oh, well.

Now, a hush came over the crowd as a lovely young lady, Graciela Ruiz, began to play her keyboard for us. She played Cielito Lindo and Fur Elise. Graciela is extremely talented and her audience was enthralled. Then, Tim and several helpers distributed blindfolds to each of us. The idea was for us to experience how the visually impaired feel and hear the world around them. Once our blindfolds were in place, two more musicians took the stage … Edgar Gil on guitar who sang Los Laureles and El Sinaloense accompanied by Antonio Morales playing the accordion.

Listening to the beautiful music in the dark without distractions was an amazing experience, at least for me. Tim mentioned to me later that he was surprised at how many people were unable to keep their blindfolds in place throughout the performance. I can understand that some might feel just a little uncomfortable, perhaps even claustrophobic. Muchas gracias to all of the musicians and participants from Discapacitados Visuales de la Bahia. I believe that many of us learned a valuable lesson from this demonstration.

Once again … BINGOLATION. Game 6 was under way. Several numbers into the game, the street in front of Nacho Daddy erupted into an Aztec dance routine. Drums, rattles, conch … no less than eight plumbed dancers twirled and galloped up Basilio Badillo, leading a more traditional posada musical group, followed by families processing their way to Cathedral de Guadalupe. I’m thinking Sean didn’t hear the commotion, but many of us were so engrossed in watching the parade, we missed a whole bunch of numbers. Finally, Sean stopped calling, the parade passed by and we began Game 6 anew. Sean kindly summarized the numbers that had already been called. Jim Raad was the lucky winner of the game.

On to Game 7, then, which had three winners: Kerry Leathers, John McKwen, and Judy Raad. Hmmm do you think Judy is related to Jim?

It was time to announce the winners of the 50/50 raffle and the BIG Raffle, namely Patti Rock who won $1,825 and generously donated it back to the cause and Tik Thurston, who was the proud winner of the BIG Raffle Action Package including a boat trip from Pegaso Tours, a one night stay at Casa Isabele, a canopy tour compliments of, ta daa, Canopy Tours and … and (2) Cheeky Monkey T-Shirts! What an amazing prize.

Game 8, the big ol’ blackout bingo was won by none other than Dennis Schran.

Congratulations to all our winners!

An interesting coincidence … the total collected for the evening – $12,700 is the same amount collected the previous game, including the 50/50 raffle amount. Very interesting. Very interesting, indeed.

Gift Bags

No Way Jose

Tino’s Restaurant

Papelería Limón

Cristalex

Los Veranos Canopy tour

Vallarta Shores

Nacho Daddy

Deja New Consignment

Xocodiva Artisan Chocolates

PVRPV

Fishing with Carolina

Cassandra Shaw

Daiquiri Dicks

Joe Jack’s Fish Shack

The Coffee Cup

America Cruise

El Andariego

Gold’s Gym

Las Palomas Restaurant

Sirloin Stokade

Apaches Martini Bar

Barra Bar

The Dog House

Hotel Tropicana

Diamonds International

Curvas Peligrosas

Bubba Gump

Greeting Cards by Helen

JB Dancing Club

Café DesArtistes

Novelties Karina

Canto del Mar

Tropical Adventures

Alexander A Salon

As usual, there are so many people who must be acknowledged, for without them, Charity Bingo just wouldn’t be possible. Tim from PVRPV, Charlotte and Carole from Xocodiva Artisan Chocolates, Lori from Rio Amapas-Private Luxury Residences, Sean Moore and Nacho Daddy, Oscar and Robin and any other volunteers I might have missed. Thank you all so much for all your hard work. The prize bags are just full of amazing gifts and services from so many wonderful businesses in Puerto Vallarta. Charity Bingo is truly a community project.

Okay. Don’t forget … Charity Bingo’s last event for Discapacitados Visuales will be held on Tuesday, December 20 at 6:30 at Nacho Daddy. Bring something from the wish list and/or a brand new player and you will receive a FREE bingo card. FREE.

Signing off until then.

Charity Bingo Night  for Casa Hogar

Most of the tables were full of eager Bingo players and once we were fed and beveraged by the able staff of Nacho Daddy, we were indeed ready to get started. The still unsticky beads were distributed by Lori, Tim was selling cards, you know, of the Bingo variety, and Robin and Carole were selling Big Raffle and 50/50 raffle tickets. Oscar was back and taking pictures. Glad to see you doing better, Oscar.

It looked like a pretty good crowd. There were several visitors from Portland, Oregon this evening. It’s c-o-o-o-l-d in Oregon. Many familiar faces and many new faces as well. I expect we will be seeing new faces all the way into the season. Good. That way, we can make new friends.

The main event of the evening began practically the same way as the last time we played. Our dandy guest caller was, once again, Sean Moore of Nacho Daddy. And we were ready to BINGO-O-O-O-o-o-o, paying strict attention to the letters and numbers called

.

Game #1 was won quickly but it was a fake bingo. The player thought B-13 had been called. It hadn’t been. However, it soon was called and the same person, Jessie Gedary, was the winner. Yaaay! We moved on to Game #2 and three winners shouted out with enthusiasm…”BINGO!!”. Tim was busy confirming that all bingos were good bingos. The winners, Rob Morris, Jay Mortensen and Peg Egan, were thrilled with their prizes. Jay was seated at the Portland table. Game #3 was a quiet fake bingo, then a fake-out bingo because it was a good bingo after all. Silly people. Roger Mallett was the lucky winner. Game #4, took forever. I don’t know why, but it was finally won by Ross Shapiro.

Half time gave me the opportunity to check out who was in attendance. Gil Gevins and his wife Lucy, attending for the first time, were at a table behind me. Gil was named “Jalisco’s Funniest Human Being” a while back. He has written several books, “Refried Brains” among them. All are available on Amazon.com. Let’s see…Lary and his daughter, Nicole, were playing nearby. Bill Kelly was playing, too. A female impersonator/lip-sinker by the name of Dixie, another newbie, was at a table behind me. Quite a star studded night.

Halftime also gave everyone the opportunity to unfuel and refuel and purchase more raffle tickets. Sales were brisk for both raffles. Then, we were off to the Bingo Races again.

Game #5 was won by Ross Shapiro, our double-dipper of the evening. He was quick to point out that a different card won. Lucky guy. Lucky cards. Then, we had a bead spill on aisle one. Oh, no! Tim was on it immediately but, apparently the spill was quite serious as it spread to aisle two. Don’t lose any beads, guys!

Game #6 was won by a street person. Well, not really. Juliana Montagano  actually won the game. I love it when people holler “Bingo!” when they pass by the restaurant. We all sit up and take notice. I was within one of winning…B-1 to be precise. Bingo is a game of chance, you know. Chances are you don’t have the number. That’s been my experience this season.

At last, it was time for the raffle drawings. Roger Mallett (the winner of Game #3) won the 50/50 raffle. When you’re hot, you’re hot. The prize came to a total of $1,825! Roger generously donated his winnings to Casa Hogar. What a lovely gesture. Thank you Roger. Mary Jacobs won the Big Raffle…the basket included a one night stay at Casa Isabel and two beautiful still-life paintings donated by the artist, Alex Sanchez. Congratulations, Mary!

Once all the photographs were taken, we began Game #7, which was won by Jeff Bemge who was sitting at the same table as Jessie Gedary, the winner of Game #1. Lucky table.

Just before Game #8 (black-out) began, I thought I heard rain. Nope. Just the sizzle of the famous Nacho Daddy fajitas cooking in the hot juices. Mmmmm. My mouth began to water. No way did it smell like rain.

Quite a ways into Game #8, my pen rolled across one of my cards pushing the beads to one side. Awwwww. No way to recover from a roll-over accident like that. Shoot! We had another accident near the front of the restaurant. I don’t know if beads and cards were involved or just drinks. Either way, bummer. It was an accident prone evening.

After a surprisingly short game, Adam Manthei was declared the winner.

Sponsors
Gift Bags
No Way Jose	Tino’s Restaurant
Papelería Limón	Cristalex
Los Veranos Canopy tour	Vallarta Shores
Nacho Daddy	Deja New Consignment
Xocodiva Artisan Chocolates	PVRPV
Fishing with Carolina	Cassandra Shaw
Daiquiri Dicks	Joe Jack’s Fish Shack
The Coffee Cup	America Cruise
El Andariego	Gold’s Gym
Las Palomas Restaurant	Sirloin Stokade
Apaches Martini Bar	Barra Bar
The Dog House	Hotel Tropicana
Diamonds International	Curvas Peligrosas
Bubba Gump	Greeting Cards by Helen
JB Dancing Club	Café DesArtistes
Novelties Karina	Canto del Mar
Tropical Adventures

Congratulations! To all our winners. Thank you for coming out and playing Bingo for Casa Hogar, our local orphanage. Many items from the wish list were donated, too earning the bringer an extra card…FREE! For the evening, $12,700 pesos were raised for the children. Thank you all so much.

Many thanks to the staff of Nacho Daddy and Sean for volunteering to call for us. You did a splendid job…all of you.

Once again, our sponsors: Tim of PVRPV, Lori of Rio Amapas-Private Luxury Residences and the lovely ladies from Xocodiva Artisan Chocolates, Charlotte and Carole, have worked very hard to make each charity bingo night a roaring success. Thanks to all of you. Additional thanks are in order for all of the amazing businesses that have donated to the prize bags. My goodness. It’s so fabulous to see the community pull together for these events.

Our next Bingo night is Tuesday, December 6^th. I hope to see many more people in attendance when we play Charity Bingo for Discapacitados Visuales de la Bahia/Help for Blind People. Signing off until then.

That’s how guest caller, Sean Moore of Nacho Daddy, started Charity Bingo for Casa Hogar, the local children’s orphanage, once the crowd had settled in. Sean called in English and Spanish, much to everyone’s delight. It took a while for him to get the hang of the Spanish, but I shouldn’t make fun. My Spanish is horrible. Anyway, Sean began to sound more and more like a wrestling match announcer as the evening progressed. It didn’t matter as everyone loved him. Thank you, Sean.

I gotta tell ya, our wonderful sponsors are doing an awesome job of gift procurement; the prize bags are chock full of fabulous certificates for discounted meals, merchandise and services. The list of contributors grows with each event. It’s almost too long to include here, but, how wonderful to have so much interest in Charity Bingo generated in the community. A big round of applause for Charlotte and Carole, the sweet ladies of Xocodiva, Artisan Chocolates, Lori of Rio Amapas-Private Luxury Residences, and, of course, Tim from PVRPV for their efforts. Take a bow, people. Oh, and a shout out to Oscar who is suffering from knee issues. Get well soon, Oscar. You were missed. Many thanks to Lina for selling cards and snapping pics of the evening, to Robin and Carole for volunteering to sell the raffle tickets and to Tammy of Nacho Daddy for running around and making certain that everything was going smoothly.

It should be mentioned that we were playing with clean beads this week. Yours truly carted them home after our last event. I left them in the mesh basket, plunked the whole thing into the pool, swooshed the beads around (call it the spin cycle), let them soak for a few minutes (the soak cycle), then pulled them out to drain. Once most of the water was gone, with the help of my friend Gayle, the beads were placed on a nice fluffy towel to complete the drain cycle. We patted them dry and let them sit outside to dry completely before returning them to the container. Just before leaving home, I personally shook Johnson’s Baby Powder all over them puppies (the powder cycle). What a difference. I propose we do this at the end of each month. Our beads smelled as fresh as a newly powdered baby’s behind. We’ll take pictures of the process next time.

On with the games! Jack Stone was a double-dipper this week winning Game 1 and Game 6. Game 2 was won by Nicole Wallace, the Bingo Queen. Game 3 went to Keith Smith. Keith was very quiet about his win and it might have gone unnoticed except for the person near him who pointed it out. We have some shy players. Game 4 was won by Bernice Rone. Jeff Moumce took care of Game 5. Games 7 and 8 were won by Roger Mallet and Tim Upton respectively. Congratulations to all our winners! By the way, not one fake bingo this week. Practice, practice, practice. That’s what I always say. Well, not really.

I noticed during the evening that a couple playing near the front of Nacho Daddy was playing by flashlight. Rather romantic don’t you think? It’s getting dark earlier now. Break out the candles!

Mr. Sean made the decision to take the halftime break after Game 5. Game 5 – The Big T – took forever. It just went on and on and on. We needed a break at that point. Hmmm. I wonder how he knew. Anyway, the not so halftime conversations seemed to be about beads…someone should invent a bead dispenser was one suggestion. We tried a fork but that didn’t work so good. Someone else wondered if one could get carpal tunnel from Bingo. Maybe using a dauber but not with beads. We like our beads but we are not bead obsessed. Honest. Oh, I noticed that one of my tablemates designed a line of Bingo wear. Bernd had cards and beads stuck to his head. What is up with that? Can’t be boredom. Our Bingo games are anything but boring.

Before we continued, the lovely lady from Casa Hogar spoke to the 74 kind people in attendance. She explained that the orphanage is home to 65 children and that they are so honored to have been selected as one of Charity Bingo’s special causes this season. By the way, the wish list has been published on Facebook on the Bingo Event page. Please check it out. Our special group’s generosity raised $10,775!

Someone won the 50/50 raffle. $1,475 went to the lucky winner. Someone always wins the 50/50 raffle. I didn’t catch the name this time. So sorry. The Big Raffle was won by Pam Thompson. I wish I’d found out what was in the basket. I think I heard something about a bottle of tequila. Anyway, a big Woo Hoo! to both winners.

By the way, Pam’s handsome date for the evening was her grandson, Nicholas. He had a great time. Heather Wilson was also in the house. Thanks for coming by and playing with us.  What a wonderful venue to see old friends and meet and make new ones from all over the world. It’s a splendid way to spend an evening. I had the pleasure of meeting Damian and Bernd who are visiting from Vancouver. Hope to see them again soon.

As usual, the amazing Nacho Daddy staff was spot on. Beverages just miraculously appeared along with delicious chips, salsa and guacamole. And, the award winning chili was spicy, just the way some folks like it. Me, not so much. Tender tummy.

Come help us support Asilo San Juand Diego this Tuesday, October 11^th and October 25th at Nacho Daddy’s, located at 180 Basilio Badillo in Old Town.

BRING AN ITEM FROM THE WISH LIST AND GET A FREE CARD TO PLAY !!!

We look forward to seeing you at B-I-N-G-O!

We also have a bazzar so any used clothing or article is appreciated

www.asilosanjuandiego.org.mx / asilo san juan diego ac FACEBOOK

The Popular

CHARITY BINGO Returns!

by Patrick Harrison

P  R  E  S  S     R  E  L  E  A  S  E

For More Info:                  Patrick Harrison – patrick@pgringo.com

During the past two years, Charity Bingo has been successful in raising over $36,000 USD for Pasitos de Luz, an organization dedicated to serving neurologically handicapped children from economically disadvantaged homes in the Puerto Vallarta area.  For the upcoming season, the Charity Bingo Administrative Staff was determined to broaden the resources to other Charity Organizations so the Charity Bingo selection committee selected six (6) different charities to benefit from the Charity Bingo proceeds.  The decision of the selected charities was based solely from the selection committee and did not include any influence from the administrative staff.

The following Charities will be part of Bingo this year:

October – Asilo San Juan Diego -  Seniors Home for the elderly November – Casa Hogar Maximo Cornenejo Quiroz – Orphanage for kids December – Discapacitados Visuales de la Bahia AC -  Help Blind people January – AFV AC – Canica -  Kids with cancer February – Banco de Alimentos -  Food Bank March – Paraiso Felino AC – Shelter for Cats

Sincerely,

The Charity Bingo Administrative Staff,

Tim Longpré, PVRPV; Lori Lorenzen, Rio Amapas; Carol Fast and Charlotte Semple, XocodivaThe following charities have been selected to receive funds from Charity Bingo.  100% of monies raised and all cash donations will go to help support:

• For games played October 11 & 25; Asilo San Juan Diego -  Seniors Home for the elderly

• For games played November 8 & 22; Casa Hogar Maximo Cornenejo Quiroz – Orphanage for kids

• For games played December  6 & 20; Discapacitados Visuales de la Bahia AC -  Aiding  the blind

• For games played January 10 & 24;  AFV AC – Canica -  Kids with cancer

• For games played February 7 & 21;  Banco de Alimentos -  Food Bank

• For games played March 6 & 20;  Paraiso Felino AC – Shelter for Cats

• March 27, 2012;  Final Season Charity Bingo Party

If you are interested in lending a hand with Charity Bingo, there are several ways this can be accomplished; 1) Go to Facebook and like our Charity Bingo Page and invite all your friends to like it as well.  2) Attend Charity Bingo Nights.  3) Volunteer with Charity Bingo by sending a private message via Facebook Charity Bingo Page to the administrative staff.  4) If you are a business and would like to donate a prize for Bingo Nights, please visit Charlotte Semple at Xocodiva Artisan Chocolates - Rodolfo Gomez #118.  322-113-0352 or via e-mail  charlee_semple@hotmail.com.

Each week again will feature guest callers, game prizes, and a 50/50 draw.  Bingo cards for the night are a bargain at only $50 pesos each, or 3 for $100 pesos. To help round out the night, Nacho Daddy’s will be offering a variety of food and drink specials from their yummy menu.

Come help us support local charities beginning Tuesday, October 11^th at Nacho Daddy’s, located at 180 Basilio Badillo in old town.  We look forward to seeing you at B-I-N-G-O!

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