About 30 games still exist in archdiocese, but alternatives gain in popularity

Livonia — “G-47,” “O-70,” “I-23,” “N-36,” “G-52?”

For decades, bingo callers have cried combinations of numbers and letters in parish halls across the Archdiocese of Detroit.

These state-approved forms of the lottery have offered financial boosts to parishes and given people an opportunity to socialize for many years. But trends have shown fewer and fewer bingo games in recent years, even as Metro Detroit parishes are offering more in terms of recreation, especially for seniors.

There are 30 bingo games in the Archdiocese of Detroit registered with the state of Michigan: 13 sponsored by a parish or a school and 17 sponsored by a Knight of Columbus council.

“We have an average attendance of 100 that plays every Friday,” said Dennis Haas, who is in charge of St. William Parish’s bingo game in Walled Lake, which has been running for 43 years. “The attendance used to be higher, around 120. It’s still an older person’s game, but we’ve seen a small dip in attendance. To be honest, there aren’t many other parishes around us that offer bingo.”

In fact, St. William is the only parish that offers bingo in Oakland County, along with four Knights of Columbus councils.

The proceeds from bingo games support the parish and bring people together, but more and more parishes are turning to activities outside of bingo, particularly card games such as euchre.

St. Peter Parish in Mount Clemens offers euchre games once a month, with attendance averaging in the 50s but sometimes up to 80 players. The Mount Clemens card game is $15 to get in, with snacks and beverages offered.

“As long as I’ve been a parishioner, we’ve never had bingo, and I’ve been here for 20 years,” said Debra Goff-Liegghio, stewardship volunteer director at St. Peter. “We host 50-50 euchre tournaments, with the money we raise going to Vacation Bible School, the veteran’s group and the police and fire Mass we host.”

Outside of the regular euchre tournament, seniors at St. Peter Parish have ample opportunity to socialize with other parishioners — particularly with the “Cooney’s Cronies,” a card-playing group named after St. Peter’s pastor, Fr. Michael Cooney.

“The (Cooney’s Cronies) love to play cards on Tuesday and they also meet at different people’s homes on Friday,” Goff-Liegghio said. “They pay $5 membership and pay $1 every time they play. They have green polo shirts embroidered with the group name.”

Goff-Liegghio said when St. Peter Parish started a senior group, they initially tried offering trips and travel-oriented events. But after the concept didn’t take off, she turned the senior planning over to the seniors.

“When we offered what they wanted to do, they said they wanted to sit around and play cards and talk to each other,” Goff-Liegghio said. “My ‘pro-tip’ to other parishes who want to form a senior program: gather a group of seniors together, set a time for the meeting during the day, and they will form their own group, they’ll decide what they want to do.”

St. Linus Parish in Dearborn has bingo games during special occasions — such as “turkey bingo” around Thanksgiving and “ham bingo” for the spring — but the parish organizes a monthly euchre game.

“Euchre is a fun game, we’re just very low-key and try to make it a low-pressure event,” said Dave Zmudczynski, who helps organize the events at St. Linus. “We have regulars who come back every month, anywhere from 25 to 50 people, depending on the night.”

Zmudczynski echoed what Goff-Liegghio said about getting seniors to come to parish events, making it low-key and encouraging people to meet and converse.

“To us, it’s more about fellowship,” Zmudczynski said. “We also have our Christian Woman’s Club that’s part of the group. The reason why people like it, I believe, is that people like to play euchre and it’s a no-pressure environment. When someone comes in, we stick a nametag on them, we sit them down and they meet someone new.”

Activities designed with socialization in mind seem to be best route for parishes to engage older parishioners, such as game nights, dances and low-profile events, but bingo will still be around for years to come.

The key is to diversify what parishes offer their parishioners in terms of events and functions, Haas said.

“At St. William, we have the rosary and altar society,” Haas said. “We offer a senior ‘blah-breaker’ in February, which gives them an opportunity to play games and have a meal together. But I don’t know if there is really anything as big as playing bingo as far as activities go.”

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