History was made April 10 when the New Iberia Ducks Unlimited Chapter took the plunge and for the first time called bingo numbers to raise money for DU.

Veteran chapter chairman Jason Foster of New Iberia was proud of the New Iberia Duck Bingo held on a Thursday evening in Downtown New Iberia at the historic Sliman Theatre. The local chapter joined select chapters across the country and in-state to pass out the bingo cards in an effort to bring in extra Bucks for Ducks.

The event was fun, said the all-around outdoorsman who has never sat down to play a bingo card in his life. He got into it, he said, enjoyed every minute with the bingo players who proved the venture was rewarding and full of promise in the future.

“It was great,” Foster said.

A shining example of successful DU bingo fundraisers has been in neighboring Vermilion Parish. The Vermilion DU chapter has held one each of the past three years with the 2024 event raising around $30,000 as more than 150 people filled The 107 on Edwards Street in Abbeville, according to DU state chairman Troy Dubois of Abbeville.

“You know, one of the things that sold me on it was their success in getting people to go to those bingos who normally don’t go to other DU events. The biggest thing to me was seeing new faces. Out of the 48 people who came, I’ve never seen 43 before,” Foster said, adding he witnessed that first-hand last Thursday.

“You know what our mission is …. It’s conservation of wetlands. This was the same purpose, the same mission. We’re just using a different magnet to attract people there,” he said, noting the annual fundraising banquet is about fellowship, particularly driven by the auction.

The bingo fundraiser was different, obviously.

“Our goal was to get 50 players and we had 48. We ended up raising a little more than $10,000. Yeah, we’ll definitely be doing it again next year. It was great,” Foster said.

Thirty-one bingo players pre-registered for the bingo event. The others were walk-ins, he said.

Seventeen firearms were won, one each in 10 of the bingo rounds and the other seven during two different types of raffles.

The bingo players also dined on barbecued appetizers fresh from Dean Love’s Hot Smokin’ Love. The 64-year-old AvEx veteran who recently retired from a management position plans to open a trailer featuring barbecued meals in two months behind the Steinberg Building, 232 W. Main St., in Downtown New Iberia.

Love said he enjoyed donating his culinary expertise to the bingo event. He and his wife prepared four racks of ribs for riblets, dates stuffed with pepperjack cheese and wrapped in bacon, and pork belly squares.

“We like to give back to the community,” Love said.

Two full pork bellies were smoked and cut into ½- to ¾-inch squares and glazed with bourbon praline with smoked chopped pecans on top to make approximately 150 small little pork bellies. The dates preparation was more labor intensive, he said, as each date needed to be cut on one side to open it up, pepperjack cheese inserted and the whole sweet fruit wrapped in bacon.

Foster, wealth manager for Cestia Wealth Management who recently celebrated his 48th birthday, said the appetizers were appreciated.

“It was great, man. He’s semi-retired and wants to pursue his passion of barbecuing. He had three different appetizers he cooked up and, man, they were delicious,” he said.

Bambino’s Burgers also donated tasty chicken tenders for the event, Foster said.

The event ran smoothly thanks to Vermilion DU committee members who arrived with Dubois, the state chairman from Abbeville. With three bingo fundraisers under their belt, their presence was welcome.

“He (Dubois) brought most of his committee members out from Abbeville to help us. Without them showing up to help, this event would not have been successful, to be honest. Their partnership, their leadership is why it was a success,” Foster said.

While the vast majority of patrons probably had no ties to DU, or even hunt ducks, bingo players could see promotional material and signage featuring specific DU projects, particularly those across Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, according to Foster.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.