Butter Braids and Bingo Run to help fund "Come Back" campaign

The Vida McKenzie Community Center is putting its fundraising efforts in high gear by inviting locals and “not so locals” to support the VMCC’s efforts to rebuild after the Holiday Farm Fire.

From now until May 1st, people can order Butter Braids for $14. What does the money buy? According to organizers Gerry Aster, Walt Wilson, Tammy Pelton, Sherry Jones, Kim Esser or Kelly Gustafson you’ll receive a frozen pastry to rise at home, then bake and feed up to twenty people. The patries come in various flavors and can last in a freezer for up to six months. For each sale, the Center will retain $6.

The Vida McKenzie Community Center had been known for its Second Saturday Bingo for the last several years. However, since COVID restrictions and the devastating fire that destroyed the center’s building on Thomson Lane, Bingo has been out of the question. Instead backers are now organizing a Bingo Run to help raise funds for the reconstruction.

To be part of it, people can sign up in-person or on-line and play as many Bingo cards as they wish. Participants can drive or pedal to Patsy’s Stage Stop Café in Cedar Flat on July 10th. Volunteers will be handing out two Bingo numbers to get the game started (and suggesting it might be smart to pick up a snack for the road trip).

From there, the Bingo Run will continue upriver to McKenzie Bridge, stopping along the way at different establishments to pick up more Bingo numbers.

After reaching McKenzie Bridge, people should park their vehicles, turn in their Bingo cards and join a free buffet luncheon and no-host bar.

“The person with the card closest to a true ‘Bingo,’ will win the Grand Prize (a float on the river)” organizers say, “and celebrate with old and new friends, knowing that nearly every dollar spent on the “Run” benefits the Vida McKenzie Community Center ‘Come Back” Campaign.’”

Not a Bingo fan? Here is a third option: Buy your own square foot of the new building for $250. To date, VMCC supporters have bought six square feet. People can mail their check to VMCC, P.O. Box 163, Vida, OR, 97488 or go to http://www.vidacommunitycenter.com to learn about other ways to help.