When Bunny Ingram first became an Elon student, they knew they were going to play bingo. They had initially heard about the monthly games from their older sister, who had also attended Elon.
Since freshman orientation, the now-junior has only missed games for three reasons: attending a funeral, having COVID-19 and studying abroad.
Over the past two years, they’ve won a record player and a Barnes & Noble gift card. But it was easier for them to recall the memories of the games’ high emotions than the games’ high-value prizes.
“We all experience the emotions together,” Ingram said. “When a good number is called, everybody in the room feels it.”
On Sept. 5, Ingram was one of 333 players at the first bingo night of the 2024-25 academic year. Swarms of students filed into McKinnon Hall after swiping their Phoenix Cards to receive bingo boards.
The Student Union Board hosts bingo nights from 10 p.m. to midnight on the first Thursday of each month during the academic year.
At 10 p.m., university President Connie Book started the night off and called out the first few rounds — a tradition for the first bingo night of the school year. With $50 Amazon gift cards at stake, players enthusiastically hollered as they marked off numbers or booed when a number wasn’t on their board.
Loud, sudden shrieks of “with a stick!” echoed through McKinnon as the first call back of the night, B10.
Book told Elon News Network she felt Elon’s enthusiastic bingo culture was “pretty unique” among universities. She said it’s always fun to hear the different reactions students have to numbers being called, especially the chants with some of the B numbers.
“I think we need to think of a few more,” Book said. “There’s so much good potential there.”
After three Amazon gift cards were won and Book’s bingo role was over, the sounds of students yelling and chanting “bingo girl, bingo girl” filled the room.
Junior Sarah Carss made her bingo debut last year when she was an orientation leader and called the numbers during a bingo game for incoming students.
“The next day, everyone was like, ‘Hey, you're the bingo girl,’” Carss said. “I thought it would go away, and it never did.”
Now, Carss has become a fully fledged bingo emcee and has embraced her role as Elon’s “bingo girl.”
“It's crazy, but it's cool,” Carss said. “I have met a lot of people and made friends with people who know me first as being the bingo girl.”
To Carss, being bingo girl is more than just calling out the numbers. Carss and her co-host junior Janeeta Smith work together to keep hundreds of students entertained and excited throughout each round, building a rapport with the crowd.
Smith experimented with different accents as she called the numbers and when the first O69 of the night was called and the room erupted into excited screams, she playfully reminded the audience that, “We promote safe sex here” and, “There are free condoms in the GLC.”
The associated call backs with some of the numbers help keep the momentum up, Carss said.
“I think the chants are fun,” Carss said. “That's a way that people get really into it. That's a good way to energize the room and get them hyped up.”
Elon bingo call backs
B1: “With nature”
B2: “Or not to be”
B4: “And after”
B8: “And tackle”
B9: “Or malignant”
B10: “With a stick”
B11: “B 11 B B 11”
B12: “It’s a vitamin”
Smith is the bingo chair of the SUB, the campus organization that hosts the games. According to Smith, each bingo game is planned out at least three weeks in advance — with a budget ranging from $200 to more than $500.
The money comes directly from Student Activity Fees paid in tuition, according to Carss.
“If you don’t come to bingo, you’re wasting your student fee,” Carss said. “We want people to have fun.”
As bingo chair, Smith is in charge of picking prizes and coordinating the bingo themes each month. Players who participate in the theme are each granted one extra board to increase their odds of winning.
Past themes have included pumpkin spice, where players brought either a pumpkin or spices; white lie, where students wore shirts with lies on them; deli shop, where players brought condiments; and The Rock’s birthday, where players could bring in a rock or dress like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to earn their extra board.
“I honestly fell in love with what I do,” Smith said.
This year, the Student Union Board bought new bingo boards that allow players to move the red tab when a number is called. Previously, SUB used dry erase markers, colorful plastic pieces and laminated paper boards. Bingo chair Janeeta Smith said this often led to lost chips and dried-out markers.
Ingram said their favorite is the annual Halloween bingo theme.
“Halloween is always killer,” Ingram said. “Everybody comes in costume and there's always the world’s most atrocious inflatable costume.”
The bingo theme Sept. 5 was national charity day. For an extra board, players donated first-aid kits, flashlights, batteries, menstrual products, disposable masks, canned food, boxes of band-aids and more. Ingram brought canned bamboo shoots, as well as extra items for their friends to donate.
All the items would be donated to United Way, Smith said.
There are regulars who come almost every month, such as Ingram, Carss said. Attendance is usually lower in the spring semester, but Carss said there’s never been a dull crowd.
“Just to be associated with people smiling and having fun, that’s really cool,” Carss said.
One of the reasons Carss said people are drawn to bingo at Elon is the level playing field.
“There is no skill,” Carss said. “It's not like you have to know something or be good at something. Anyone can win.”
The prizes of the night Sept. 5 included an Elon merch bundle, an Owala tumbler with a bag of popsicle flavored liquid IV, a large multipack of ramen with a pot, a karaoke machine, a “dog bed” for people, Sony headphones and an iPad. Smith said she tries to keep an eye out for Amazon deals when picking out the prizes each month.
In 13 rounds and a little under two hours, all the prizes had been won. The night included two ties settled by tense games of Rock, Paper, Scissors and one six-way tie.
Ingram was among the six students who shouted “bingo” during the last round of the night, competing for the iPad. The contestants had to each pick a number from one to 100, but Ingram’s 32 wasn’t the closest.
SUB’s next bingo night will be from 10 p.m. to midnight Oct. 3 in McKinnon hall.
Book said one of her favorite things about bingo nights at Elon is the way it helps build campus community. She said students can come with friends or come alone and meet the people at their table.
Since students only need a Phoenix card to attend, Ingram said there’s no reason not to go at least once.
“You’re not too cool for it,” Ingram said. “Let yourself have fun and you will have fun.”