A total of 100,000 total prize dollars were up for grabs last weekend at the NWT KidSport Super Bingo.
The $100,000 prize pool was split up into 21 different game prizes with the final grand prize for the super jackpot coming in at $30,000, which was won by Jodie Isador of Lutsel K'e. The first game of the afternoon started at 4 p.m. but that didn't stop people from lining up outside the Yellowknife Multiplex before the doors first opened at nine in the morning on a rainy Saturday.
“We had a line-up this morning at nine to get in here before we even opened the doors,” saud Kendra Wambold, KidSport NWT coordinator. “We are glad that it's raining today, rainy days are usually good bingo days, were just hoping to raise as much money as possible.”
The amount that KidSport did raise when everything was said and done was $70,000, which Wambold says is good haul indicating that it was a good event overall. That money will now go towards helping underprivileged kids across the Northwest Territories active in sports.
“Kids from under privileged families can apply for funding, they can get up to $300 per calender year,” said Wambold . “so that can be for registration or it can be towards equipments so that can be running shoes, hockey equipment, helmets, skates, all sorts of stuff.”
Wambold said that most of the time a kid will be referred to them by a coach or a teacher, then once they have applied KidSport will work with the kid to help them get involved in their sport of choice. Wambold added that all the money they have raised stays in the north through agreements that the organization has with different businesses and sporting bodies to ensure that the money ends up where it is supposed to be.
“If it's towards registration, then it goes towards the association so if its towards hockey it'll go to the Yellowknife Minor Hockey Association, if it's swimming it goes towards the swim club,” said Wambold.
“If it's equipment then we have a deal with Overlander Sports, so the athlete will get a voucher for the equipment and then Overlander will send them the equipment. If they're in a community somewhere we can mail and ship it to them and KidSport covers the cost of shipping.”
Any kids within the NWT can apply for KidSport funding as long as they live in a household that is below the maximum household income threshold. In Yellowknife that threshold is $60,000 and it varies across the other communities in the North.
Every year different organizations apply through the City of Yellowknife to host the Super Bingo, next year's host hasn't been announced yet but Wambold said that it is very rare that a company gets to host two years in a row.