The Northern College Alumni Association is celebrating hitting the jackpot, with an initiative that has been paying off for two years now.
It’s called “Bingo for Bursaries” – a partnership between the college, the Timmins Charity Bingo Association and Ontario Lottery and Gaming.
Alumni development officer Nicole Gingras says $38,000 has been raised so far. All of it goes to $500 bursaries for students at all the campuses of Northern.
All Gingras has to do is provide two volunteers two Mondays a month at the Timmins Gaming Centre… to help operate a bingo.
“Our slot,” says Gingras, is Mondays from 11:30 to 1:45. And then all we do is we show up there and we assist with the bingo that’s in session. And so it’s a two-hour-and-15-minute donation of our time, if you will, and then we get our share once a month from the OLG-Timmins Gaming Centre.”
“It’s an opportunity for friends of Northern College, alumni alike. Anybody who goes through the training can go and help us and collectively we all make a difference in our students’ lives.”
The resulting bursaries are handed out in the fall, winter, and at graduation.