Bingo is big at the Jefferson carnival

‘‘Bingo’s like the center of the carnival, right in the middle of everything,” said Chaz Wagner, a Jefferson resident who attended the carnival Tuesday night. ‘‘It’s the heart of the carnival.”

Attached to the kitchen and food stand sits a large building with aluminum ceilings, asphalt floors and garage doors lining the sides, pulled up to leave an open pavilion for breezy gambling.

Just inside the doors a ring of picnic tables and benches all face the middle. Prizes are piled high nearby on wooden shelves: lawn chairs, watering cans, blenders, bottles of soda and soap, and much more.

Sitting at a desk with a pop-up Bingo ball selector is announcer Billie Hemp, who reads off the combinations, ‘‘B-4, O-10, G-39,” at a rate of about one every three seconds.

The picnic tables are packed with Bingo fans, some with just one card, many with stacks of them. All have piles of hard corn kernels to mark the ‘‘hits” as Hemp calls them. Some even brought pillows from home to sit on while they play.

Cards cost 10 cents each and each win gives a player a win slip. Slips can be used to purchase prizes or to enter a drawing for a Toshiba television⁄DVD player which will be held Saturday night.

As a player accumulates win slips, he or she can add them together in order to purchase more expensive prizes. Ten wins will get a player a radio⁄CD player.

Proceeds from the Bingo go to the Ruritan Club, while some other games’ proceeds benefit the Jefferson Volunteer Fire Company.

Jefferson resident and Ruritan member Jim McKnight volunteered to help with the Bingo Monday night. He said people flock to the carnival and its Bingo games from across Frederick County and even from as far as West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania, and that players’ ages range from 2 to 90 years old.

The Bingo is run by an all-volunteer cadre of dedicated community members looking to give back and have fun at the same time.

‘‘They live in the community, they know a lot people, and they help out this way,” McKnight said.

Jefferson resident Steven Reedy said he loves the Jefferson carnival as he took a break from his boards.

‘‘I grew up in this neighborhood my whole life,” he said. ‘‘I’ve been coming here since I was 6. I don’t know, it’s like a tradition. It’s a small-town feel, everyone comes out to it. I’ll be going to this carnival for the rest of my life.”

If you go

Jefferson Ruritan Community Carnival

Continues through Saturday on Ruritan Center grounds at intersection of U.S. 340 and Lander Road in Jefferson.

Discount rides every night; games, food, live music, prize Bingo nightly

Food served 5 to 8 p.m.

www.jeffersonmd.net⁄Ruritan⁄