To kick off the Valentine’s season, Drew Night Life hosted “Bring Your Valentine to Bingo” in Crawford Hall on Friday, Feb. 3. The event officially started at 8 p.m., but students were lining up to get the best seats well before the staff began allowing entry. Several students made an effort to bring their Valentine or partner as well, as the name of the event suggests.
Once inside, students mingled, seated themselves and collected chips and bingo cards. There was a station to make hot chocolate and a table where students could pick up candy hearts and fliers about healthy relationships. The room filled with eager contestants and excitement grew as the time for bingo began growing closer.
Before the first game, the host, Muthoni Githinji (‘25), gave the Wellness Activators—an emotional wellness group created by Action Scholars at Drew—the floor to speak about their initiative to support knowledge about healthy relationships. Grace Reinhart (‘25) outlined that the fliers contained information about the qualities of a healthy relationship and the signs of an abusive one. She then invited everyone to grab a flier and enjoy some candy.
Then, the first prizes were revealed. They were four plushies: a huge seal, a cat body pillow, a large goose and Djungelskog—a large bear. Upon accidentally preemptively revealing this wide array of prizes, there was an immense uproar from the crowd, particularly in response to the Djungelskog.
After the first four rounds of bingo, the prizes switched to Valentines’ Day themed baskets, including five based on the love languages: physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service and gift giving. Some of the other basket themes included “cozy night in” (with a blanket and chocolate) and an “obligatory sex basket” (which had lube, a vibrator and a glass dildo). In the spirit of the holiday, in order to win these prizes you had to create a heart on your bingo board.
Throughout the games, the room would go quiet as people focused on the numbers being called, interrupted by the occasional joke or gasps of excitement as people got closer to winning.
As always, bingo was a hit for Drew Night Life. Speaking about her time at bingo, Julia Caldwell (‘24) said, “I thought there were so many good prizes. I liked the love language prizes and the ginormous stuffed animals, they were really cool. It was fun to see the turnout.”
Sierra Walker is a sophomore majoring in media and communications and marketing.
