CULLMAN, Ala. – In preparation for its 65th school year, St. Paul’s Lutheran School recently added a new fundraiser in addition to its annual Wild Game Cookout – Beer, Bands & Bingo at Goat Island Brewing. While the Wild Game Cookout, now going into its sixth year, offers free food and entertainment for the community while accepting donations, the new fundraiser sells raffle tickets, bingo cards, jewelry and pizzas to raise money for the school. Additionally, Goat Island pledged to donate 20% of the money made from growler sales to the school.
Bingo games and raffle drawings were held between each music act – Resonate at 5:00, the Jason Willingham Band and Antonia Woodruff. Raffle prizes included items like certificates for a week of tanning at Palm Beach Tan, a car maintenance gift bag and a Berkeley Bob’s gift package. Bingo prizes were slightly larger – a Mary Kay cosmetics gift basket, a class for two at Sips N Strokes and a grand prize top-to-bottom cleaning from Two Maids and a Mop valued at $500.
St. Paul’s Senior Pastor John Bussman offered a few words on the fundraising efforts, saying, “We obviously want to raise funds to help the school, but a lot of this is just giving back to our community, supporting Goat Island and trying to have a good time while we’re doing it.”
Bussman and Elizabeth Lamar, chair of the church’s evangelism committee, said the money would help the school purchase supplies and fund scholarships for prospective students.
“We just want to encourage as many kids to come,” Bussman said. “It gets harder and harder for people these days, and we want to be able to make the school as affordable as possible.”
Said Lamar, “If anyone would like to make a donation to the school, it’s tax-deductible and all you have to do is get in contact with the church.”
“We know that what we give is not only a good educational product and trying to create the leaders for the next generation, but our associate pastor and I are involved every day and we certainly want that education to be built on Christ,” Bussman shared. “We’re trying to teach them the foundation of the scriptures and that everything has a purpose in this life, not depending on who you are or what you grow up to do, but because we have a God who loves them and died for them. If they leave with nothing else, we at least want them to leave with that.”
While the church asked the amount earned to remain unpublished, Bussman and Lamar wished to thank the donors who provided the raffle bags and bingo prizes – like Mae’s Food Hall, Mary Kay and Two Maids and a Mop – as well as Goat Island Brewing for hosting the event and donating some of its profits.
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