High School Banned From Promoting Weekly Bingo Fundraiser

High School Banned From Promoting Weekly Bingo Fundraiser
In Newport- Mesa California a group of high school students run a weekly Bingo event for fundraisers.

The Costa Mesa Boosters Bingo started around the beginning of this school year. Its purpose is for a great cause, to dedicate proceeds to student programs at Costa Mesa Middle School and Costa Mesa High School.

Raising money for things like the annual eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C. and New York City. Other proceeds go towards school uniforms, equipment and tournament fees for sports teams.

The school district uses an online platform Peachjar where groups can have electronic fliers uploaded to publicize school events and fundraisers. It is also a platform for communications from PTAs, school foundations, school-related booster clubs and qualified nonprofit organizations also can be posted.

Newport-Mesa's guidelines states the district cannot use fliers to promote games of chance, violence or consumption of alcohol or drugs.

"Because those are prohibited activities on our district facilities, we do not use district communication systems, such as Peachjar, to promote those types of things," said district spokeswoman Annette Franco.

Boosters Bingo's publicity manager, Angela Maniaci said of this policy "hurts only the students. It hurts ... sports, student travel and any of the programs that could have benefited from any money we raise."

Group members currently are using their personal email addresses to get the word out about event information and also posting on their websites and Facebook and Twitter accounts.

"Our volunteers have been dwindling too," she added. "We had around 10 to 12 per night when we started around August or September. We're lucky if we have four to five now."
Bingo Games Back to articles