Whiteside Area Career Center’s east CEO class to put a twist on classic game at Bogus Bingo fundraiser

DIXON — The Whiteside Area Career Center’s east Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities class of 2025 is putting a twist on traditional bingo with its “Bogus Bingo” fundraiser.

The event – set to begin at 6:03 p.m. Feb. 13 at the Dixon Elks Lodge, 1279 Franklin Grove Road in Dixon - will start out with dinner and an icebreaker-style bingo before diving into themed bingo rounds, WACC CEO Facilitator Emily Zimmerman said in an interview with Shaw Local.

It will be set up like the children’s game of four corners where players stand in one of four designated corners in a room and are eliminated until the last person standing wins. One round will be a classic bingo game; others will be music through the years, a Valentine’s Day theme and trivia-style, Zimmerman said.

Tickets are $34.59 a person. All funds will be put toward the students' individual businesses that they’ll create and showcase at a trade show in April, she said.

“I just love the concept of the CEO program. I love that we can simultaneously support the youth the same time as going out and just having a really fun night,” she said. “Being able to support young entrepreneurs and show them that it’s possible to be a successful business owner is super important.”

The CEO program is a year-long, hands-on course offered to junior and senior high school students at WACC member schools. The two east and west CEO classes led by Zimmerman and Facilitator LeAndra Hartmen combine speaker presentations, visits to local businesses, a mentor program and a final project where students start their own business.

“The speakers that I bring in...some of them get very nervous. You’ve got grown CEOs that have been in the industry 20, 30 years, but they get intimidated by these young kids because they are so well spoken, they’re well dressed, they’re attentive,” Zimmerman said.

At the beginning of the school year, students are tasked with forming a class business or event. For the 15 students in the east CEO class, they came up with Bogus Bingo.

Originally, the students wanted to have a casino night, but “we ran into some hurdles with their age,” Zimmerman said.

Since none of the students are 21 - Illinois' legal gambling age - and a majority of them are under 18, “it just wasn’t going to work out,” she said.

“They were super bummed out, but they still wanted to do some sort of like a game aspect,” Zimmerman said. “The word ‘bogus’ was kind of thrown out and so they said let’s just put a twist on a traditional bingo game and do bogus bingo.”

The term “bogus” originated in the late 1800s as the name for a machine that made counterfeit coins, according to Merriam-Webster. Since then, it’s developed into a slang word used to describe an unfortunate situation.

Everything about the event, including its odd start time of 6:03 p.m., the random ticket price of $34.59 and bingo prizes are intentionally meant to be silly to emphasize its “bogus” theme, Zimmerman said.

Their goal is to raise a minimum of $7,500 net profit, or $500 per student, which will be put into an account for each student to use as a loan to start their individual businesses, she said.

The students will showcase their individual businesses at the trade show which is April 23 and 24 at Northland Mall in Sterling. The expectation is that they’ll pay back that loan using the profits they make, Zimmerman said.

For information, visit the WACC CEO program website or email emily.j.zimmerman@SVCC.com.