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THE MANASSAS VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY ENDS 30 YEARS OF
BINGO |
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March 29, 2008
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On
Saturday March 29th, the Manassas Volunteer
Fire Company hosted its final bingo fundraiser. The fire
company had been hosting a weekly bingo session every
Saturday for over 3 decades. This had always been the
primary fundraiser for the fire company in which the
proceeds were used for purchasing equipment, apparatus,
and personal protective gear for our members. The
proceeds raised by our bingo game enabled our city
leaders to direct monies that would have otherwise been
necessary for the operation of the fire company to go
towards other community services such as the roads, and
parks and recreations. |
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“A Little History” For many years the only
requirement for our membership was to work a
bingo session once every month. The membership
was divided into 4 teams and a friendly rivalry
existed among the teams as to who could raise
the most money on a monthly basis. |
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On a typical Saturday night the membership would
show up for its bingo duty at approximately
4pm, and would begin selling bingo games at
5pm. The games would usually last until
10:30pm with the membership cleaning the hall immediately
thereafter and maybe were being relieved as
early as
11pm. There were certain times in our history
when the fire company would be in dyer need of
new equipment and would play host to a double
bingo session. This required resetting the bingo
hall after the first session, reselling the
bingo games, and then running the game as a
normal evening would run. On those occasions the
membership was lucky to be out by
3:30am!!! |
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Over the years the game matured quite a bit,
from the use of cardboard bingo games with
plastic dots to cover the numbers that were
called. To today’s bingo that is played on
paper books and the even more modern electronic
bingo game. We once used to use a rotating
cylinder to pull a wooden ball out and call the
number; we now have the more modern bingo
caller’s stand with plastic balls and electronic
monitors throughout the hall so our players
could follow the game with ease.
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Over the years the fire company made many
upgrades to our bingo hall in order to provide
the best possible environment for our players.
When smoking was permissible in public
buildings, we once invested over $13,000 into a
smoke removal system so that we could provide a
better cleaner environment for our players. Last
year as a matter of fact we invested over
$20,000 in new cushioned chairs and a more
modern callers stand in order to attract as many
players as we could. |
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“Changes” over the past few years our revenue
stream from bingo had decreased substantially.
We would often be able to tell the conditions in
our overall economy based on the weekly
attendance we would have at our games. It was a
sign of the times in that the changes in the
expected level of emergency services we are
expected to provide to the community; would
require us to do away with a longstanding staple
in the fire company, and in the community for
that matter. |
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The fire company attempted to find replacement
workers for our active members by establishing a
new level of membership, that being the
Associate Member. The Associate Member was one
that would assist the fire company in fund
raising only. We were able to enroll over 12
Associate Members in the past year, but not
nearly enough to be able to alleviate the active
membership from this fundraising requirement as
it takes over 8 individuals on a team to have an
effective presence at our games. |
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“Ultimate Decision” The fire company membership
and board of director’s moved to end bingo in
order to focus our efforts on our primary
objective which is to provide the best possible
fire and emergency services to the citizens of
Manassas and the surrounding community. As many
are aware, after the tragedy of September 11,
2001, the fire service was forever changed. The
amount of time required by our volunteers for
training and duty nights/weekends only made the
fundraising aspect for our membership that much
more cumbersome. The company now requires our
members to pull duty nights in order to staff
our apparatus on a consistent basis, as we rely
less and less on home response to staff the
units. |
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We would like to thank our Auxiliary for
providing refreshments and food to our bingo
players for as long as the game has existed. The
money raised by the auxiliary from this service
would be donated annually to the fire company
and over the years went to purchase a Chief’s
response vehicle, Automatic Electronic
Deliberator, as well as, most recently a thermal
imaging camera at a cost of $8,000. Well Done!!! |
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We would especially like to thank the women and
men who for over 30 years have consistently
supported the fire company by attending our
weekly game. The membership of the fire company
is incredibly appreciative of your support.
Without you, much that we have been able to
accomplish in our 116 year history would not
have been possible. |
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TEAM 2 Captain Jason Lesnik |
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Manassas Volunteer Fire Company |
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