April = Tax Month = Hopefully warmer weather = Springtime Showers. Happy April members. I don’t know about you, but I’m 150% looking forward to hopefully warmer weather and even springtime showers – taxes – no so much.
As I’m writing this we’re receiving our 3rd snowstorm in as many weeks today – March has been brutal for snow this year – wet, heavy, gross, pulling you around on the highway snow. But with any luck, by the time I write the next article I can tell you all about the fun planting I have in store.
March was a busy month again for charitable gambling. We awarded our $5,000 profit from purse bingo to the Eveleth 4th of July fund. The Gilbert 3rd of July fund sponsored 2 bingo sessions at the VFW and we matched them for a nice donation of $3,143.50. We awarded ten students of the month again each $150. We donated $500 to the Eveleth Golden Bear Foundation – did you know that the Golden Bear Foundation now has 3 separate accounts so to speak under the foundation. They have the Legacy account, the Golden Bear account and now they’ve added a Rock Ridge account. It’s always a priority to help all of the students of our district. We gave $500 to the Hibbing Youth Baseball team and $500 to a newly formed 510c3 Miscarriage Support group called “Light After Loss”. The Eveleth Gilbert prom committee was awarded $300 and we were also able to donate $500 to the Aurora Food Shelf and $500 to the Quad City Food Shelf. March is aways Food Shelf Matching month, so our donations were doubled and we were able to make an even bigger impact in food insecurity in our area.
I hope you were able to join us on April 1st for our Rock Ridge Concession Stand Fundraiser at the lodge. The school has 3 different concession stands throughout the campus that over 10 different teams use and almost all of them need either all or at least some new equipment in them. I’m hoping we have an amazing turnout for it. Cowboy Angel Blue is always a fun group to listen and dance to as well. I’ll report more on this event next month.
In April, on Good Friday – we’re having our Easter bingo session. Little treats will be available and it’ll also be our last Fish Fry of the season. The jackpots for bingo have steadily gotten higher with the higher attendance we’ve been having.
In May we’ll be celebrating with our last themed bingo night on Cinco De Mayo, May 5th and we will be celebrating “Smile Month” on May 9th when we’ll be giving away free toothbrush kits to any and all kids who come up on burger night. Save the date of June 6th for our Public Safety Night. It’s going to be a lot of fun and we will be giving away free bike helmets and free life jackets for kids while supplies last and also we’ll have a drawing for 2 free bikes. It’ll be great to meet our public safety members and also remind kids to be safe while they’re enjoying some summertime fun.
Being able to give back to our surrounding communities with these types of events is such a great aspect of my job. Yes, I do spend a lot of time serving our charitable gambling sites and also taking care of the paperwork that’s required by the State of Minnesota and there’s A LOT of it, writing checks, paying bills, auditing games, going through audits, ordering inventory, training new bartenders, etc., but hands down the best aspect of this job is that we can help so many in our communities. If you know of a group that needs help, or an event you’d like to see at your lodge, give me a call or email and we can totally brainstorm something! Have a great April and let’s hope we see those May Flowers very soon.