Monica Fontenette

In an effort to promote fun for kids of all ages, Blessing New Iberia is hosting a Kids Halloween Bingo Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Bayou Side Bingo.

Monica Fontenette, organizer and planner for the Kids Halloween Bingo, said the event is $5 to join in and children will get to play 10 games of bingo, among other games.

Kids are encouraged to dress in their Halloween costumes and try to win prizes.

Blessing New Iberia’s events are aimed at stopping bullying in the area.

Fontenette spoke to The Daily Iberian about the event.

What is happening at the kids’ bingo?

It’s a place for the kids to come out and play bingo like their parents and grandparents. They play for prizes. We also have a pumpkin decorating contest where they can decorate the pumpkins from home and bring them here. We’ll judge them and they can win prizes for that as well.

Anything else?

We usually feed them a morning snack while they are there.

How long has this been going on?

We started kid’s bingo for Easter of this year. We used to a harvest festival in the past but there are a lot of other places that puts on festivals so we decided to give them something different. We’ve done one for Easter, we’ve done one for back to school. It’s for every big holiday coming up, so that’s why we decided to go with a Halloween Bingo.

Why did you change it to bingo?

A lot of places have been doing Halloween harvest festivals. And last year we noticed that the attendance was down and sometimes we struggle with finding the right location and this year we started doing the children’s bingos and it’s been going well so we decided to keep up with it.

Do the kids enjoy it?

The kids love it. They come in, they get their papers and dabbers, they sit and have snacks that we serve them and when it’s time to play bingo, they are quite excited to see what kind of prizes they will win.

What are the prizes?

We do a candy drive and most of it is donated from the community, and we do baskets with all kinds of Halloween treats inside of them and toys.

What’s the event mean to you?

For me, personally, I love it. I don’t have kids anymore because they are all grown and we shifted our organization to focusing more on the area of bullying. We started to address the issue of bullying. It’s an event for a kid to come out and be a kid. It’s safe. The parents are there with them. And it’s just fun because they all enjoy when they come.

What do you want everyone to know about the kids’ bingo?

Please come out to support it so we can offer up more events like this for the kids. Everyone will enjoy it. Attendance is very important because the more we have, the more we are able to do things like this because there is not a whole lot in the area that is reasonably priced for them to come out to do. We like kids of all ages to come out and it’s safe and the environment is so energetic and when the kids leave, they are happy, their tummies are full and they leave with a smile on their face.