LONDON, ONT. -- Every Saturday night neighbours on Euclid Avenue sit on their porches or front lawns to play an old fashioned game of porch bingo.
The bingo cards are delivered to each person’s porch before the game starts and the numbers are called out using a small PA system.
Bonnie Morgan, a bingo enthusiast, says the game was created to lift spirits during this challenging time.
“We thought it would be fun to get all the neighbours together just to have an hour of fun every Saturday afternoon.”
Prizes are donated by the neighbours and are pooled onto a table. Each person who hears their magic number and calls out, “BINGO,” gets to choose a gift, one by one, while practicing physical distancing.
The prizes this week came all the way from the Easter Bunny who donated stuffed animals and chocolate.
The Easter Bunny was even nice enough to throw in a toilet paper roll or two.
While people of all ages battled for bingo bragging rights, it was the kids who wiped the house clean of all its winnings.
“I was happy to get chocolate for Easter,” says Jade McConnell, two-time bingo winner.
“We got toilet paper and candies…because I felt like it,” says sisters Gabby and Alice Seewald.
Riley Poirier was asked if he would share his chocolate winnings with his mother.
“Maybe,” he says “maybe...no.”
Porch bingo happens every Saturday night for an hour. Morgan hopes that other neighbourhoods will follow suit and make a bingo porch night of their own.
“Everyone loves it,” Morgan says, “And you see the smile on peoples faces when they walk down the street, the joggers and the people walking with their dogs, they’re all saying we should play in their neighbourhoods too.”
