As the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community settles into remote working for many of its government departments, more events are taking place on the Zoom platform. Earlier in 2020, departments were tasked to find new interactive ways to deliver their services to Community members online, and they have responded, creating many different ways for Community members to interact with them as well as enjoy and attend their special events virtually through Zoom.

One of these events is the O’odham Piipaash Language Program’s bingo sessions. Their Halloween Bingo event was a showcase of how people can enjoy a favorite annual event through Zoom. Now, the OPLP will be hosting Holiday Bingoon Friday, December 18 at 6 p.m. via Zoom.

“We got a lot of good feedback from our Halloween Bingo event. We were all surprised at how well it went,” said Cultural Resources Department Outreach Coordinator Cody Achin. “The OPLP staff tested [the format to get] out the kinks in the weeks prior and assigned a role to each staff member to ensure that the whole experience ran as smoothly as possible for our participants.” 

Holiday Bingo will have contests for participants to win prizes, such as the ugliest Christmas sweater and the most creative holiday-themed Zoom background. 

“With the upcoming Holiday Bingo, we will be making small adjustments to the format, but it should be just as fun. It’ll be a good bingo this year,” Achin said.