Retired & Senior Volunteer Program’s bingo sessions to go smoke free Sunday

BY BRIAN O’CONNOR boconnor@kenoshanews.com  


    It’s no longer a smoker’s world.

    If anyone needed further proof of this axiom, they might look no further than the Retired & Senior Volunteer Program’s weekly bingo sessions, which will prohibit smoking during their bi-weekly bingo sessions starting Sunday. The sessions raise about $8,000 per month for the Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services, Inc.

    The move comes after five years of segregating smokers from non-smokers at the Kenosha Moose Lodge, 3003 30th Ave. Officials at the corporation began hosting bingo sessions at the lodge to compensate for funding cuts in 2003.

    The move is risky, said RSVP director Darleen Coleman. Almost half of the people who come to the bingo sessions — including the bingo caller — smoke frequently, Coleman said. Some of them, turned off by the prospect of bingo without the accompanying cloud of nicotine smoke, may never come back, Coleman said.

    “We had our last smoking session Thursday,” she said. “Some of the smokers said, ‘Well, you won’t be seeing me anymore.”’

    When she announced the decision at Thursday’s session, the bingo players’ reaction surprised her.

    “I was expecting heckles and boos,” she said. “Instead, I heard some applause. The people who aren’t smokers are very, very happy.”

    Officials first looked at removing smoking from the bingo games a few years ago, Coleman said. However, survey results showed smoking bingo players were strongly opposed to the move.

    “I was afraid to make the change without other organizations making the change as well,” she said.

    Then, earlier this year, the Moose Lodge announced their facility would go smoke-free. The lodge left the decision up to the tenants — RSVP and the Kenosha County Senior Action Council — whether they would go smokeless as well. The offer was simply too tempting to pass up, Coleman said.

    “It’s fitting right in with what we want to do,” she said.

    The move toward smokeless bingo will also help the organization retain volunteers, Coleman said.

    “Most of our volunteers don’t smoke,” she said. “They would complain a little about it. It got to the point where you would leave the Moose Lodge and not smoke and reek of cigarettes.”

    While pro-cigarette forces out there might see the move as simply another step toward a smokeless country, Coleman said she hopes the bingo move will inspire some smokers to try and quit, although she sympathizes with how difficult it is.

    “It’s a tough addiction to beat,” she said.