By Natalie DeFord, Guest Writer
Students received colorful pet fish and bags of chips as prizes during the late night programming event, Fish and Chips Bingo.
The event took place in the Anderson University Center Commons the evening of Nov. 1. About 60 students throughout the course of the evening sat down with beads and bingo cards.
The fish prize was a Betta fish in a cup of water with a blue lid, on which was written the gender of the fish. The new pet also came with a glass bowl filled with marbles, an envelope of fish feed and a packet of care instructions.
Late Night Programming organized the event, saying on its Facebook page that it puts on “fun, weekend events in the evenings for late-night Lutes.”
Two Late Night Programmers, sophomores Domenic Desoto and Leslie Ducay, hosted the event, called out bingo spaces and handed out prizes. They determined which rounds of play were “fish rounds,” during which a person can win a fish, or “chip rounds,” where the prize was a bag of chips.
Not every round of play required a standard bingo with five spaces in a row. The programmers sometimes wanted an ‘X’ through the center and between all four corners, an ‘L’ in any corner taking up 9 spaces or even a “blackout” covering all spaces on the player’s bingo card.
To win a pet fish, students had to win the proper Bingo combination during a fish round. But there was one exception when two roommates teamed up. The girls were allowed to trade their two bags of chips they had previously won for a fish.
Two other people who won Bingo at the same time had to play rock-paper-scissors for a tie-breaker. Senior Emily Henkelman won this battle, and said, “I’m so excited right now. I won a fish.”
Other winners included sophomore Stephanie Martin, who was the self-proclaimed “winner of the Cheeto bag.” The first person to win a fish, sophomore Tabitha HolyField, said her new purple pet was named “Mr. Mo the Fish.”
First-year Kalina Springer said that Fish and Chips Bingo is a way for students to “get together for fish and chips and scream loudly and bond.”
Desoto said he and the other programmers planned and executed the event, which meant taking a trip to Pet-Smart.
“Fish and Chips Bingo is a super fun event,” Desoto said. “You play a variety of Bingo games with the chance of winning a pet betta complete with a living environment or a bag of your favorite chips.”
The next Late Night Programming event is Laser Tag, co-sponsored by ASPLU, in the field house next Friday at 9 p.m. Late Night Programming information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/latenightlutes.
