Linda Missere (left) and Catherine Close of Kindersley look on as a Crown & Anchor wheel goes round and round at the Kindersley Rotary Club’s 2018 Casino Night fundraiser on Nov. 24 at the Kindersley Inn. Volunteer firefighter Raelyn Jackson, who was overseeing the table, waits to see if she needs to pay out chips to the gambling gals at the charity casino.

Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion

The giving, and gambling, spirit came early for a group of people attending an annual charity casino fundraiser held by the Rotary Club of Kindersley.

The club’s Casino Night fundraiser took place on Nov. 24 at the Kindersley Inn. More than 100 people were on hand to enjoy an evening of food, fun and entertainment all in the name of charity. The event is the largest annual fundraiser for the local Rotary Club.

There were several changes made to this year’s fundraiser with one change being the timing of the event. The club has always held the event near Halloween, so people were encouraged to dress in costumes and according to themes.

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The Casino Night was moved to the end of November with hopes of people using the event as a Christmas party, according to organizers. In addition to the timing, the event took on a new look and feel. There was still a supper, silent auction, music and gambling tables, but the similarities ended there.

The event always featured both live and silent auctions, but the club did not do a live auction and there was a reduction in the number of silent auction items as compared to previous editions of the fundraiser. The club added a raffle draw.

People could purchase tickets and they would put their tickets into a bag beside the raffle items. The silent auction items included a small decorative water fountain, pair of Ray-Ban sun glasses, purse and shall combo, wireless home package, Milwaukee cordless drill, and a small painting by artist Dean Frances of Sagebrush Studios.

Instead of having a band, the club hired a disc jockey. There were still gambling tables and prizes in a chip auction, but Black Jack was not the only game being played at the tables. The club added a couple of Crown & Anchor tables to the charity casino.

The four prizes in the chip auction were a Mary Kay Gift Basket, travel suitcase, Dyson cordless vacuum, and outdoor patio set. People who ended up with the largest chip stacks at the end of the night could win the prizes with their chips.

Kathy Friesen, the club’s current president, spoke to the crowd before supper. She explained the changes from previous years and how the night would run, and then she told people more about the event and the club.

“This is our annual Casino Night,” she said, recognizing that other new additions for the club’s 11th edition of its fundraiser included a football squares game for the Grey Cup and a playing card draw to win a basket of assorted adult beverages. “We just mixed it up a little bit.”

She noted that the club has 17 members and a couple of the members were unable to be at the fundraiser, so a group of about 10 members and other volunteers were running the event. The club’s president said members of the Big Dippers pool fundraising committee, the fire department and the club would be helping out as dealers at the gambling tables. There were even a couple of past club members helping at the tables.

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