For the first time ever, the Spanish Club will be hosting Spanish Bingo open to all students. Usually, the Spanish Club only plays at meetings, but they have decided to host a Spanish Bingo event open to the campus.

Megan Phillips, president of the Spanish Club, gave reason to why they are holding the special occasion.

“Spanish Bingo is the last event of Hispanic Heritage Month, and we thought it would just be a fun event to do to close out the month,” Phillips said.

The Spanish Club has been hosting other events, such as traditional Hispanic dance classes, to honor Hispanic Heritage Month.

According to the National Hispanic Heritage Month website, Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. The celebration begins on Sept. 15 and ends Oct. 15.

Sept. 15 is an important and significant day because it is the anniversary for independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The celebratory month was first called Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson in 1968, and was later expanded into a month by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

The name of the Spanish Bingo game is called “Loteria,” which is a rough translation of “the lottery.” Unlike normal bingo, Spanish Bingo contains cards with pictures instead of numbers. The announcer of the bingo game says the English term for the image on the card, and players have to find the Spanish translation on their bingo sheet. The bingo game is supposed to be fun and bring awareness to the Spanish language to the students playing. It is also great practice to learn some Spanish vocabulary. When a lucky player wins, they can choose a prize. The prizes include gift cards from different places around town.

Michaela Cosgrove, the vice president of the Spanish Club, is excited to see how Spanish Bingo night will go.

“This is the first kind of event that we’ve had in recent years where it’s been open to campus,” Cosgrove said. “We are looking forward to promoting our club.”

The event will be located in the Frey Conference Suite of the Kanter Student Center at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 12. As of now, Spanish Bingo night is a one-time thing, but, if it becomes popular, the Spanish Club will possibly be looking into hosting future bingo nights.