On Friday, on March 17, the Campus Activities Board (CAB) held its last Grocery Bingo of the 2023 spring semester in Redwood Hall.

It was St. Patrick’s Day themed and the decorations in Redwood went all out to celebrate the holiday. The tables were covered in green and yellow paper and the food prizes were organized by color to appear like a rainbow.

“Grocery Bingo was so much fun because I got to spend my precious time with my girls as well as win k-cups for my Keurig,” said Freshman Chelsea Niedermier who attended the last bingo.

Friday’s rounds were regular bingo, an x-shaped pattern, a corner pattern, a post stamp pattern, a slash pattern, and as many AU students are familiar with, the blackout round.

“My favorite part about grocery bingo is the blackout round. I love this round because everyone is trying to fill their card up first to get to the best prizes of the night,” said CAB member Hannah Mantle.

The last round is different from all of the others as instead of trying to get a bingo with a certain pattern, you have to fill out the entire board before being able to go get a prize. The non-food prizes which were offered in the last round blackout included a rabbit squishmallow plush, a blanket, a vacuum, toilet paper and other fun items.

According to CAB member Michelle Olson, this year’s St. Patrick’s Day had a smaller attendance when compared to other years, “St. Patrick’s Day grocery bingo had a lot fewer people than normal, in my opinion; usually all the tables are filled, but this one had multiple empty tables.”

Though this year’s St. Patrick’s Grocery Bingo had a smaller attendance, it didn’t stop students from containing their excitement throughout the bingo rounds.

“Grocery bingo was high energy and full of excitement! Energy was buzzing because of all the great prizes we had to offer,” said Mantle.

Before each Grocery Bingo, CAB members go shopping for food and non-food items to provide as prizes for the AU students. For the food items they can range from any type of dessert you can think of to canned and non-perishable food.

Not every student wins bingo, but it still makes the games enjoyable and encourages them to come to the next Grocery Bingo for another chance to win free food items or fun prizes.

“It went by pretty quickly because of how many people there were. The students who did go still had fun,” said Olson.

The next Grocery Bingo is planned to take place next semester.