Bingo fundraiser benefits McKayla Wall scholarship

Madison Wickersham thinks about her late friend McKayla Wall every day. This fall, when she heads off to Bloomsburg to study radiology, Wickersham will carry McKayla’s memory and a scholarship established in her name.

So she was happy to support a fundraiser for the McKayla Wall Memorial Scholarship on Sunday. More than 200 people played bingo and bid on baskets in memory of the Tamaqua Area High School senior who was supposed to graduate this year but died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism on Feb. 2. McKayla planned to attend Mansfield University.

“It just goes to show how much she cared for other people, and how much they cared for her. She knew everyone, she was nice to everyone,” Wickersham said.

Bingo was one of McKayla’s favorite activities from a young age, and she started calling games at a young age. It was a natural choice for a fundraiser in her memory. Players dabbed their cards with a portrait of McKayla overlooking the room. Her friends and family had to stop selling tickets because they reached the capacity for the fire hall.

“We still had people calling for tickets. People were calling yesterday asking for tickets,” said McKayla’s great-aunt Joyce Arner.

Joyce and her husband, Fran, collected many of the 300-plus baskets and raffle items that were available to people who attended the fundraiser. Some people dropped off baskets anonymously. Some even dropped them at a house a block away.

“They were more than happy,” Joyce Arner said. “A lot of people gave who weren’t even asked to.”

Judy Shartzer, a friend of the Wall family, volunteered time and effort to assembling the fundraiser. Volunteers baked, made monetary donations and donated baskets. Shartzer did some of all three.

“It wasn’t hard. People were very generous because they knew it was a good cause,” Shartzer said.

Shartzer said some of her best memories of McKayla were her upbeat personality, and the fact that she was always willing to help others. So she was happy to return the favor in McKayla’s memory.

McKayla’s mother, Lauren Wall, said the scholarship fund has already paid back the first round of seven $500 scholarships that were given out to McKayla’s classmates at the end of the school year. Sunday’s fundraiser means that the scholarship will continue to carry on her memory in years to come.

And it will continue to benefit students like Wickersham, who will retain the memory of their friend as they go off to college.

“It means a lot, because I feel like I was lucky that I got it. I’m happy to have the scholarship in her name,” Wickersham said.