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economist suntribune news saturday sept 14 2002 bingo hall doses again charities left scrambling by jeff mitchell staff writer charities are scrambling to find alternative fundraising opportuni ties in the wake of the closure of bingo country in markham its the end of bingo fundraising from a charity point of view said harvey meek a member of the markham bingo country sponsors association which represents local charities that derived income from gaming at the hall all the member charities there are 25 to 30 of them will have to seek some other method of fundraising mr meek said up to 1 million was raised each year for local chari ties whose volunteers staffed bin- gos at the heritage road hall thats revenue that will now have to come from other sources there will be some of these charities who will not have the resources to do anything said mr meek theyll just collapse and dis appear the hall closed at the end of august shortly after reopening in april prior to that it had been closed for a number of months because of dwindling players bingo country has also closed its hall in woodbridge while the newmarket site continues to operate the loss of revenue will hit hard said esther mitchell executive director of evergreen hospice of markhamstouffville its bad she said in terms of our budget its a loss of 28000 to 30000 a year its hard to raise that sort of money ms mitchell fears the lost rev enue which helped pay for office costs and other overhead expendi- staff file photosjoerd witteveen up to 1 million was raised each year for local charities through bingo country on heritage road the facility has closed for a second time with a bingo country spokesperson saying the location isnt viable tures may have to come from pro gram budgets that possibility comes at a time when demand for services is climbing evergreen works with the termi nally ill and provides bereavement counseling as well as the only grief management program for children in the southern end of the region we have more than tripled our caseload over the last three years ms mitchell said were seeing around 100 clients a month now the closure however does not necessarily mean the end of bingo in markham according to lou canadian open pumped 26 million into local economy rcga says by mike hayakawa staff writer how much of an economic impact did last weeks 2002 bell canadian open have on the markham area try more than 26 million thats what the royal canadian golf association revealed in a news release on friday the impact of the open which was held at unionvilles angus glen golf club from sept 2 to 8 was derived from a model recently commissioned by the pga tour to assess the impact of its tourna ments the model comes up with esti mates on lodging and accommoda tion food and beverage trans portation and event merchandise and concessions it does not take into account such factors as money spent in the area that would have been spent regardless of the open as well it does not take into account television coverage or dol lars spent outside the markham region broadcast live nationally in english and french the canadian coverage was in excess of 17 hours on ctv rds and sportsnet the open was also televised live on espn throughout the united states and had international distri bution to more than 236 million households the model does include open attendance ticket sales and event staffing the tournament drew more than 100000 spectators to angus glen and required more than 2000 volunteers and staff the results are similar to other pga tour events the pga esti mates the average economic impact for a tournament on local markets is between 20 million and 30 million cdn for more information check out the rcga website at wwwrcgaorg innocente regional operations manager with bingo country he said the company is now seeking another location for a hall in markham the existing hall on a street in an industrialcommercial area north of hwy 7 near the markville shopping centre is sim ply in a poor location mr innocente said its just in the wrong area what we really need to be is further south west he said for five years we never made any money there although he was reluc tant to speculate about when it might occur mr innocente said hes confi dent there will again be charitable bingo in markham its just in the wrong area what we really need to be is further southwest he said the operation would likely be located in a hall smaller than the 25000 square foot heritage road building were disappointed but we def initely see the potential for charita ble gaming in markham mr innocente said ironically it was a battle launched by the charities in markham that resulted in a relaxing of smoking regulations in bingo halls throughout the region mr meek argued before the regions health committee that restricting the size of designated smoking rooms dsrs to 25per cent of occupiable floor space as required in the regions law was unfair as halls in toronto and peel region are allowed dsrs encom passing 50percent of their floor space and as many as three- quarters of bingo players smoke said mr meek a long battle ensued with markham council lors squaring off against supporters of the bylaw in york region council chambers this spring an amendment allowing the 50per cent smoking areas was passed that victory now means little to the charities that have lost an important revenue source mr meek said he said that with the arrival of fall crowds at the hall may have picked up and made bingo a viable pursuit its just unfortunate there was nt the will to see it through for a longer period of time he said ifvll wmmm s t k 0 x fcvsv vel li your way to a fabulous vacation two lights east of warden on hwy 7 9054t56999 see instore for details time is running out join us at the bluestone during september for your last chance to win a fabulous trip to a sandals resort we will be having a gourmet australian wine dinner to launch our new fall wines on monday september 30 at which we will 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