Laughter and excited whispers filled the Hive as students leaned over bingo cards and colorful chips, calling out numbers and celebrating each win.
About 40 students attended Bingo Club’s second meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 6, featuring grocery store staples as prizes, ranging from pasta sauce and paper towels to disinfecting wipes.
“I want to create a space I wish existed when I was a freshman,” said Tayrn Yahn, the club’s founder. “A place where you can come and have fun and play games, make jokes and meet other people.”
Bingo Club began as a small joke during a Student Organization Council meeting. Yahn, who serves as the SOC community director, said the group was discussing hypothetical student organizations when Bingo Club came up.
Yahn decided to turn the running bit into an actual club.
“I was like, ‘Everybody’s loving this. Everybody loves bingo. Why don’t we just make bingo happen all the time?’” said Yahn, a junior ASL-English interpretation major.
The club was created near the end of the Spring 2026 semester, leaving little time to hold meetings. Yahn decided to wait until the fall semester to officially begin. The club’s first meeting on Tuesday Sept. 15 attracted about 64 students, said Yahn.
For many students, the appeal of Bingo Club goes beyond the prizes.
Alex Mena, a sophomore fashion studies major, said she returned because she enjoyed the first meeting and liked the relaxing nature of bingo.
“I’m an old lady at heart,” Mena said. “It’s de-stressing near the end of the week, you know?”
Ainsley Newell, a senior interdisciplinary studies major combining ASL-English interpretation and music, also attended the first meeting and returned for the second.
Newell said the first meeting was high energy and gave her an opportunity to have conversations and meet people. She also has been looking for new organizations to join after the Renegades Outdoor Collective, one of her favorite Columbia clubs, shut down.
“I really like bingo,” Newell said. “There was really good conversations and a really good community.”
Brianna King, a first-year majoring in both sound design for media and stage and audio arts, also returned after attending the first meeting.
“Who doesn’t want free groceries?” King said.
King said the first meeting stood out because students were showing genuine interest in playing and were eager to participate, enjoying being around people who were there because they wanted to be, even for a game as old fashioned as bingo.
King came to the second hoping to win disinfecting wipes. Other students had their eyes on other practical prizes, including spaghetti noodles, magic erasers and other homegoods.
The prizes are not chosen randomly. Yahn said the club collects suggestions from students about what they’d like to see at future meetings. Grocery bingo was one of the most requested ideas.
“We got a bunch of submissions,” Yahn said. “Even at convocation, a lot of people were like, ‘Are you going to do grocery bingo?’ So it’s like, well, enough people are asking. You’ve got to give the people what they want.”
The club’s focus on practical prizes also reflects the financial realities many college students face.
Yahn said she wants Bingo Club to give students an opportunity to win something they might not normally spend the money on.
“I understand being a broke college student,” Yahn said. “You’re buying the necessities and that’s it.”
Stephanie Haro, the club’s secretary and a senior radio major, said the club’s early success shows that students do not necessarily need an elaborate concept to create a successful organization.
“It really just goes to show that if you want to start a club, it’s totally in your grasp and possible,” she said.
Copy edited by Venus Tapang
