Pechanga Tribal Nation

Pechanga donates to high school

Great Oak banks on bingo

October 19, 2004
By MICHAEL BUCHANAN - Staff Writer - North County Times

TEMECULA ---- Some parents and staff at Great Oak High School have brought bingo back to the area in an effort to raise money for extracurricular activities at the new campus.

The school will be holding bingo games on Monday nights at the school, 32555 Deer Hollow Way. Doors will open at 4:30 p.m. with "early bird" bingo sessions kicking off at 5:30 p.m. and regular sessions starting at 6 p.m.

While some schools have employed bingo as a way to raise money and failed, Great Oak High School has an edge that may attract enthusiasts of the game: Pechanga Resort & Casino has donated all of its electronic bingo equipment to the school. The equipment was surplus after the casino shut down its bingo games in July, to the disappointment of many patrons.

The high school's bingo event is organized by the Great Oak Academic Leadership Society, a nonprofit group of parents and teachers formed to raise money for various extracurricular programs, such as football, band and theater.

John Wetteland, the group's vice president, said Tuesday that the group primarily helps lower income students who can't afford such items as football gear or band equipment.

"It supports the kids and it supports education," Wetteland said. "And it's a lot of fun."

It's also filling a void left when Pechanga halted its bingo. The casino started bingo in 1997 and in April 2003 opened a 20,000-square-foot building to house the games at the southern end of the resort.

This year, however, casino managers decided to halt the operations after learning that they would have to spend millions to upgrade the bingo building's power system, said casino spokeswoman Ciara Coyle. The building was torn down in late summer and paved over as a parking area.

Meanwhile, the tribe's bingo flashboards, number blowers and other electronic game gear were collecting dust in a warehouse. When the school approached the tribe about using the equipment, Coyle said the tribe decided it made sense to donate the equipment ---- valued at $20,000 ---- to the school.

"We're their neighbors," Coyle said. "If the school can benefit from it, then that's all the better."

The school kicked off its bingo nights on Monday. Players can pay $10 to compete for a $150 payout or pay $20 to play to win $250. Each player gets 15 chances to win.

Around 90 people showed up at the inaugural game ---- far short of the 300 to 350 the school hopes to draw. But Principal Tim Ritter said he is confident that word will spread quickly among bingo aficionados.

"It's an interesting subculture," said Ritter, who "called" bingo back when he was a football coach at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga. That school also used bingo to raise money.

Other schools have tried bingo and failed. Rich Alderson, principal at Rancho Buena Vista High School in Vista, said the school's Longhorn Foundation ran bingo games for about six months, but wasn't able to draw enough people to break even.

Still, Alderson noted that his school lacked the proper equipment and had to compete with some successful bingo groups in town.

"Bingo players are very particular about their game," Alderson said. "If (Great Oak) can make it work, more power to them."

Ritter said he knows of no other bingo operation in Temecula and he is confident that ---- given Pechanga's support ---- the school's games will draw folks.

"The people that play bingo just love playing bingo," Ritter said. "Last night, we had people from Fallbrook and from Oceanside here."

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