Bentworth Blessings ultimate game night giant success for nonprofit
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Bentworth Blessings’ Ultimate Family Game Night featured giant-sized versions of popular board games including Candyland.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Bentworth Blessings’ Ultimate Family Game Night featured giant board games, including Candyland.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Families in Bentworth School District played giant-sized versions of popular board games at Bentworth Blessings’ annual Ultimate Family Game Night, a fundraiser for the nonprofit.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Among the giant-sized versions of board games that Bentworth School District children played at the annual Ultimate Family Game Night was Hi-Ho! Cherry-O.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
A gigantic Monopoly board was among the games played at Bentworth Blessings’ Ultimate Family Game Night. The names of sponsors appeared on the squares. Bentworth High School National Honor Society won the Monopoly tournament and received a $250 prize.
Courtesy of Russell Evans/Bentworth School District
A giant Monopoly game was one of the highlights of the Ultimate Family Game night hosted at Bentworth High School and organized by Bentworth Blessings. Names of sponsors were printed on the squares. The Bentworth High School National Honor Society won the Monopoly tournament.
Courtesy of Russell Evans/Bentworth School District
Bentworth Blessings hosted its annual Ultimate Family Game Night fundraiser, which featured giant-sized games, including Uno, and activities.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Dawn Fredericks, left, plays giant-sized Uno with her children, Greyson, center, and Everly, a second-grader at Bentworth Elementary School, during Bentworth Blessings’ Ultimate Family Game Night.
To paraphrase “A Field of Dreams,” Bentworth Blessings built it – nearly a dozen giant-sized games – and people came.
The nonprofit organization, which provides food, hygiene items and a community grocery pantry for Bentworth School District students in grades kindergarten through 12 and their families, held its sixth annual Ultimate Family Game Night fundraiser on Saturday.
An estimated 750 people, including more than 100 volunteers, turned out for the event, which raised more than $25,000 for Bentworth Blessings.
The afternoon included a spaghetti dinner, face painting, silent auction, Chinese auction, and drawing for a Splash Lagoon getaway.
But the big draw – literally – was the life-sized versions of family favorite games: among them, Candyland, Jenga, Connect Four, Uno, Hi Ho! Cherry-O, Checkers, Snakes and Ladders, and a 30-by-30-foot Monopoly board. Games cost $1 each to play.
“This is so much fun; the kids love it,” said Jodi Gaso, as her son, third-grader Kalil Gaso, rolled an oversized die and served as his token while playing Snakes and Ladders. “They’re so excited about the games.”
Later, Kalil jumped up and down as the giant Jenga tower he’d been removing blocks from and restacking collapsed.
The event, which was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, set records for attendance and funds raised.
“We weren’t sure after being away for two years what the response would be, but we were absolutely thrilled to see the community missed us as much as we missed them,” said Jennifer Cario, president and founder of Bentworth Blessings.
Cario, who has a background as a marketing consultant, started Bentworth Blessings in 2013, after her family moved into the school district.
During a conversation with elementary school principal Susie Macik, Cario was surprised to learn that for some of the students, the lunches provided at school were their only meals.
So she looked up census data that showed more than a quarter of Bentworth’s student population lived at or below the poverty level.
“It was shocking to me that there are kids in my kids’ classes who don’t have enough to eat – that when they leave school on Friday, they might not eat until they get back on Monday,” said Cario.
Cario volunteered with Washington Park Blessings in a Backpack program, and then started a Bentleyville chapter.
She then decided to form Bentworth Blessings, which is not affiliated with the nationwide Blessings in a Backpack, in order to provide year-round and more expansive services.
During the months that school was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, Bentworth Blessings provided groceries every other week for 54 families.
The grocery pantry operates during the summer and holidays, and provides school supplies, household items and hygiene items.
Bentworth Blessings provides Christmas gifts for about 120 children, and its emergency program helps families in crisis, including those who have experienced house fire, floods, or domestic violence.
“If there is a barrier to education and we can meet it, that’s our goal,” said Cario, noting Bentworth Blessings purchased a washing machine and dryer for the middle school after the gym teacher offered to do laundry for students who didn’t have access to those appliances at home.
The nonprofit runs on grants and donations, and Ultimate Game Night, sponsored by EQT, is its biggest fundraiser.
Cario thanked the businesses, organizations, and individuals who bought Monopoly sponsorships, made donations and contributions, and volunteered to help with the event.
Bentworth Blessings made all of the games. Cario’s mother and her sewing circle created the Monopoly board – they spent a week fashioning together tablecloths Cario had used at her wedding.
Bentworth Blessings wouldn’t be able to work without the support of the school district and the community, Cario said.
“You have to have complete buy-in from the school district and the community, and we live in a district where everybody, from the top down, gets it. They know it’s a big-picture, holistic thing,” said Cario. “I love so much that there isn’t a stigma of any kind, and that there are times where children will go up to a teacher or the principal and say they think one of the students in their class needs some help. It’s the idea that kids are stepping up to support each other, to help each other. We need to raise a generation of caring kids.”
Students’ academic performance and test scores, too, have improved since Bentworth Blessings began.
Macik said schools must meet students’ basic needs in order to meet their academic needs, and Bentworth Blessings enables the district to do that.
“If a student is hungry and doesn’t know when they’re going to eat or where they’re going to sleep, they don’t care that two plus two equals four,” said Macik. “I have to know my kids, I have to know what they’re experiencing and what’s happening to them. That’s what’s so wonderful about Blessings. It’s about taking care of each other, and isn’t that what we’re supposed to do?”