No bingo at Fisherman's Picnic in 2021

The Grand Marais Lions Club announced that there will be a Fisherman’s Picnic event at the end of May, but no one knew what it was really going to look like, with the COVID-19 pandemic and Highway 61 construction impacting our daily lives. At the beginning of July, the Lions made it clear that the Picnic was on and a schedule was made available.

There was no bingo on the schedule and the community has been expressing a great deal of disappointment, as well as hopes that there is a way to have bingo in 2021.

WTIP’s Rhonda Silence reached out to the American Legion Post 413 Sons, which is the organization that operates the bingo tent, to find out—will there be bingo at Fisherman’s Picnic in 2021?

The short answer is no, but it is more complicated than one would think. The American Legion Sons have operated the Bingo tent for years, putting up the big tent, the tables and bingo equipment before the event and packing it all away. The Legion Sons also doing all the work leading up to the event. That includes scheduling volunteers to keep the bingo going and getting the appropriate gambling permit.

This year the usual preparations were complicated by the unknowns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Highway 61 construction and the loss of bingo tent/beer garden partner, Grandma Ray’s (previously the American Legion lounge).

Because of all the unknowns, the Legion Sons did not apply for the gambling permit or approach Buck’s Hardware to see if their parking lot could be used for bingo.

To learn more about the future of bingo at Fisherman’s Picnic, listen to this interview.