Yelm Lions Club hosts ‘Prairie Days Bingo’ to kick off weekend of free activities

For the second consecutive year, the Yelm Lions Club kicked off the most popular and jam-packed weekend of the year, Prairie Days weekend, by hosting bingo at the Yelm Community Center on Thursday, June 12.

Christy Garcia, Yelm Lions Club board member, told the Nisqually Valley News that she and other Yelm Lions Club members were thrilled to bring back Prairie Days Bingo, a traditional Prairie Days event.

“It was a really good turnout. It’s the second year we’ve participated in this event, and it was really fun. We didn’t know how many people to expect because last year when we did bingo, it was on a Friday night. But the room was full,” Garcia said.

“We ended up playing bingo for about two-and-a-half hours. The crowd really had a good time. My husband, Pedro Garcia, was the bingo caller.”

Garcia added Pedro had gone out and purchased a new bingo machine for the event. Brand new bingo cards were also presented to attendees, and according to Garcia, the cards “made it really easy for people to see and play” at the free event last Thursday.

One of the big hits for the Yelm Lions Club at Prairie Days Bingo was the return of an old favorite: Lions Burgers.

“When we do Movies in the Park, we serve hamburgers and hot dogs. Last year, when we did the bingo night at the community center, we only did hot dogs and chili. We decided to add hamburgers this year, which was a big success,” Garcia said. “For the first time in years, we brought back something that used to be our trademark — Lions Burgers. We would do them with grilled onions, and we haven’t done that in a really long time. Folks loved it at the event. We sold a lot of Lions burgers.”

She noted that Safeway donated the onions for the Lions Burgers, and Garcia said she and Yelm Lions Club are extremely thankful for the gesture. She also graciously thanked Grocery Outlet in Yelm for the donation of two $35 gift cards — one of which was used as a blackout bingo prize.

“We love it when the community comes together to donate things for the event, because it makes the event so much more fun,” Garcia said. “We love being a part of our community. It was really meaningful for us to be able to kick it off this year. Bingo night kicked off Prairie Days on Thursday, and being able to be with our community, enjoy food together, play a fun bingo game together — that is really special for our club. We had a lot of our volunteers show up in different ways to help out in different capacities, and we had a fantastic time.

“I also wanted to thank our Boy Scout Troop 268 for helping run food back and forth. Many of our volunteers at the event were the scout volunteers. They even stayed at the end to help clean up, which was very nice. I just wanted to thank them for everything they did.”