ROCHELLE — On Thursday, April 4, a Small Business Bingo Spring Kickoff event was held at the hangar at Chicagoland Skydiving Center and raised $4,105 that will be split evenly between the Rochelle Area Community Foundation and The Kitchen Table. Well over 200 people attended the event, Event Organizer and AP Massage Therapy Owner Ashley Patrick said.

Mayor John Bearrows served as a special guest bingo caller. The cost was $15 for 10 games of bingo. Raffle tickets were available for six for $5. 

“I was proud of and excited by the turnout we had,” Patrick said. “I was a little skeptical since it'd been so long since the last event with how much of a turnout we'd have and how much the momentum would keep rolling with these events. I was super excited to see that everyone was eagerly anticipating this next one and all showed up. Well over 200 people came and supported the cause.”

Small Business Bingo raised $18,853 for area nonprofits in 2023 with its inaugural four events. Patrick came up with the idea of bingo nights in the community with prizes donated by local businesses to raise money for area nonprofits last year. The four events in fall 2023 raised money for Shining Star Children’s Advocacy Center, HOPE of Ogle County, Foundation for Focus House, and The Kitchen Table.

The support by local businesses and the attendance of the events in 2023 surpassed Patrick’s expectations, as it saw 100 sponsors that donated prizes, raffle baskets and made monetary donations from the Rochelle community and beyond, and the first event saw 170 attendees with the following three seeing 250-300 people. Due to demand, Small Business Bingo had to move its final two events to the hangar at CSC, the largest event space in town. 

The final three Small Business Bingo events for 2024 will be held in November, December and January after the skydiving season ends and the venue is freed up. The next event will take place Nov. 7 from 6-8 p.m. to benefit HOPE of Ogle County and Shining Star Children’s Advocacy Center. The December and January dates will be set in the coming months. 

Patrick said she wanted to host a spring event to keep the event’s momentum going. 

“I was able to find a date before that started to sneak in a spring event and not have to wait a whole year before picking up events again since we have to start later in the year in November,” Patrick said. “I wanted to get all four events in and be able to help as many organizations as possible without waiting. I wanted to keep people excited and keep the momentum.”

Last year’s nonprofit organizations will be beneficiaries again this year, along with four new nonprofits. Each event will benefit two nonprofits. 

“This year I felt the expectation to continue helping the organizations from last year,” Patrick said. “I have a personal connection with all of them. I want to be able to spread that out and help more organizations and bring awareness for them and raise funds. Everyone was on board with that. I wanted to help the same four organizations from last year and see what other organizations and nonprofits we have in our area and be able to help them too and let the community know what they do.”

The venue costs were covered for the 2024 events by the Rochelle Rotary Club, the City of Rochelle and Holcomb Bank, Patrick said. Jessica Morris of Edward Jones will sponsor the bingo cards for each event. Patrick said those sponsorships will go a long way towards raising more money for nonprofits. 

More volunteers have also been seen to help with this year’s events. 

“It's a tremendous amount of work,” Patrick said. “But I'm very fortunate with volunteers. I had several people come and help me set up the day of the event. Picking up donations from so many sponsors is a huge challenge. Being able to have some drop-off points or people that could go pick things up was huge. It takes a lot of volunteers to run the event. It's a lot of moving parts. I think this year I have a really good system down. People really want to get involved and help and that makes a big difference.”