by Dennis Dalman
Residents of Sartell can have fun playing bingo for prizes while at the same time learning about the people, places, culture and history of Sartell.
Starting at noon on Thursday, Sept. 28, people – including young people – can pick up a bingo card at three places: Sartell City Hall, the Sartell Community Center and the Knotty Paws shop pet-grooming and doggie daycare business located at 600 First Ave. NE across the road from the former paper-mill site.
The history bingo event is the brainchild of Maggie Kraemer, long-time member of the Sartell Senior Connection. She broached the idea with the Sartell Historical Society, whose members endorsed the idea.
Here is how the history bingo game will work:
On the front of each bingo card, there will be 25 spaces, each space noting an historical building, site or business in Sartell. People can “fill in” the four corners of the card or four or five spaces adjacent to one another on vertical or horizontal rows. There will be some “free” spaces on the card as well. Participants “fill in” the spaces by going to the places mentioned in each of the four or five spaces and taking a selfie in front of the building, site, object or other. They can have someone else take their picture instead of having to take a selfie. Then they will print out the photos, attach them to a sheet of paper and submit it with their bingo cards.
The addresses of all the historic sites, buildings, objects are all printed on the back of the bingo card so participants know how to get to them. The bingo cards will all be varied because the 25 spaces are chosen at random for each card from a list of 50 historical sites in the city.
The bingo players will then return their completed cards (with the photos) to the Sartell Community Center by Saturday, Oct. 7. Once returned, the bingo cards will be placed in a big box. In early October, winners will be picked at random from the box of completed bingo cards, and prizes will be awarded. The specific prizes have not been decided at this point but will be announced soon.
The bingo cards will be available after noon on Thursday, Sept. 28. On that day and on Sept. 29, groups of sixth-graders in the Sartell-St. Stephen School District will meet at the community center to learn about how the bingo games will work.
The “why” for the history bingo event has a simple answer, Kraemer said, adding she got the idea for the event from a similar bingo game to promote Minnesota State Parks & Trails activities.
“It’s to help educate community members about Sartell’s rich, diverse history,” she said.
Four examples of among the historic locations that will be on the bingo cards are First High School, First Fire Engine, Round Barn Marker, Fourth Post Office.
