IU communications class to host free bingo night

Amid the shouting of “B-9,” “N-35” and “O-72,” Bloomington community members will have the chance to play bingo for free tonight at an event sponsored by IU’s business and interpersonal communications class. The children of the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington will be listening for these numbers from 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Boys and Girls Club, located at 311 S. Lincoln St. \nThe class, taught by professor Jennifer Heusel, is broken down into three groups, each with a responsibility for the bingo night: planning, donations and advertising, said junior Rachel Skolnick. \nThe 28 students are expected to plan and participate in the project as their final grade. The class focuses on how to effectively use communication skills in a business setting. \n“It teaches you how to communicate with colleagues and people in the community with different organizations,” sophomore Lauren Jones said. \nThe event is free and open to the general public. However, donations will be accepted at the door, Skolnick said. \nStudents in the class each helped pay for different parts of the event. Each student gave $5 to help buy snacks at Sam’s Club, Skolnick said. \nThe donations committee went around to local businesses and collected change from students on campus. \n“We have a bunch of different local businesses with gift cards, like D.P. Dough, Mother Bear’s Pizza, The Bloomington Bagel Co. and more,” said senior Kellie Mattingly. The prizes will be handed out during the night.\nThe students created the grading rubric that will be used by the professor and her peers to evaluate the success of the event and individual work. \nSkolnick said she is glad the class is holding an event like this. \n“It’s better than just reading a bunch of readings where you can’t apply what you learned,” Skolnick said. “It’s nice to have a class where you’re interactive with your peers and helping out the community.”