Bomber Bingo produces big winners

By Barb Appelhans

REPORTER

The Belvidere Rotary Foundation sponsored a Bomber Bingo during the Poplar Grove Fly-in/Drive-in/Walk-in on Sunday, Aug. 21 at 2 p.m.

Volunteer pilots and riders flew over the numbered grid painted on the ground with each number on the ground representing numbers on the raffle tickets.

The gird on which the pilots flew was 72 feet by 75 feet in length and each numbered square was roughly three square feet.

Numbers were randomly assigned to the squares to correspond with the ticket numbers.

As the pilots flew over the grid, the person in front would drop a bag of flour from the plane onto the grid, and then circled around for two more tries at hitting the grid, since quite a few bags missed the grid completely.

The first three bags of flour to hit the numbered grid determined first second and third place winners.

The first place winner received $1,500. The second place winner received $750. The third place winner received $250.

Approximately 600 raffle tickets were sold for the Bomber Bingo. Tickets were $10 each, meaning the Belvidere Rotary Club raised about $6,000 with this one event.

The money raised from the donations went to local organizations such as Belvidere Youth Baseball (BYB), Belvidere Heritage Days, and Boone County Habitat for Humanity. The foundation also used the money toward providing college scholarships for local graduating high school seniors.