On Saturday night, Feb. 19, the Student Activities Association held the event Springo – like bingo, but with spring rolls and Chinese food, as per its organizers – in the the O’Connor Campus Center (Coop) Television Room.   

As the treasurer of the Student Activities Association, senior Matt Pugliese set up the spread of dumplings, spring rolls and fried rice.

“It was supposed to be a play on words — spring rolls, bingo — and it was also in reference to hopefully the approaching springtime,” he said.

Ironically, there was a blizzard at the time of the event, which may have explained the lower attendance. With temperatures plunging to the single digits, students arrived bundled under copious layers, taking the opportunity to thaw by the large fireplace.

The Student Activities Association is the main organization at Colgate that does event planning and organizing. Events hosted by SAA are student-initiated, meaning many of the events they run look to be appealing to the student population. SAA also partners with other student organizations in order to create diverse programming. Contact information for the Student Activities Association can be found on their Get Involved page.

As he was dishing out food for the bingo participants, Pugliese added, “The weather definitely probably scared some people away, unfortunately. We did a similar event like this first semester called ‘Wango,’ which had a bit more people turn out. But, it also was sunny and warm then, so we will roll with the punches.” 

The original rendition of Springo, Wango occurred on Aug, 27 of 2021. In the place of spring rolls and Chinese food, students were served wings and dip – hence the ‘W’. 

After a few rounds of SAA leaders calling out the letter number combos, sophomore Kasar Profit got the first bingo prize of the evening with a horizontal win across his bingo board.   

“It was pretty cool getting bingo to be honest, but I definitely did not expect to be the first person to do so. Also, I had a fun time picking out my prize and everything. Who knows, maybe I will get another win tonight though, ” Profit joked. 

Fellow sophomore Eli Watson also enjoyed the game, despite not winning himself. 

“I would say I am a rookie. I have maybe played bingo twice in my life, but I am just happy to be here with my friends, even though we pretty much had to brave the elements to get here,” Watson said. 

After an eventful evening, the event wrapped up at 11:00 p.m. While the blizzard may have deterred some, the Coop TV room was still bustling with the light-hearted fun of Saturday night bingo. Overall, the event was a success in bringing together students through healthy competition, the potential of prizes and, of course, the promise of spring rolls.