Sometimes things just fall into place.
That was the case earlier this month when Neighbor to Neighbor held its Bingo Burger Bash — the nonprofit’s biggest fundraiser of the year.
As Pat Tate, executive director, noted, “this may have been our best event ever.”
The event came at a good time. Several of the state and federal programs that Neighbor to Neighbor and other food pantries depend on have been reduced dramatically or eliminated altogether. That has put pressure on Neighbor to Neighbor to find ways to continue providing services to the less fortunate, such as feeding a made-from-scratch hot lunches to more than 100 people every day and sending 900 bags of groceries home each month to people experiencing food insecurity.
“One month our truck from the Arkansas Food Bank had two pallets — one with dried figs and the other had spaghetti noodles,” Tate said. “Before the cutbacks in these programs, we would get 16 to 18 pallets, five and six feet tall, with frozen chicken, beef, pork and fish and fresh and canned fruit, along with pasta, rice, beans, spaghetti sauce and mac and cheese. It’s hard to feed people on figs and pasta.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“You all know why you’re here,” she told the gathering.
The evening started off with attendees finding their tables, most of which had been sponsored by groups and businesses wanting the added benefits of having gold and silver seating. For the gold table sponsors, Neighbor to Neighbor board members donned matching green aprons and became their personal waiters.
Then it was time to eat, and as Tate said, “the Pine Bluff Country Club outdid themselves this year.” There were, of course, handmade burger patties, with optional cheese, bacon and fixings. In addition, the club provided baked beans, two kinds of potato salad and crispy french fries. For dessert there were big homemade chocolate chip cookies and cobbler.
With dinner out of the way, it was bingo time, with games that brought in prizes big and bigger, depending on the bingo cards that were purchased.
One end of the ballroom was filled with silent auction prizes, where bidders kept a close watch over the bid sheets in hopes of winning such items as original paintings, decorated baskets jammed with goodies and gift cards and high-end cookware.
When the auctioneer took the microphone, things got serious, as items such as a two-day guided fly fishing trip and celebrity-signed basketballs were auctioned to the highest bidder with shouts of encouragement from the audience as the prices kept rising. In the end, all of the auction items — both live and silent — went home with new owners.
“This was definitely a night to remember,” Tate said. “We made more money than we ever have, and that will certainly assist us in our mission to help those in need. But this is also a way to connect with the community and our sponsors in a fun, relaxed way. And I would say everyone had a blast. We are on the front lines of helping our neighbors, but we absolutely could not fight this fight without the community’s support. We say thank you, and our more than a thousand clients say thank you.”
