Arts & Entertainment
Lady Zeno Raises Cash for Pride Day 2000
Miss Beaver Pond To Be Crowned First Time In 25 Years
Arts & Entertainement
Lady Zeno Raises Cash For Pride Day
2000
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Lady Zeno presents a check
to Pride Vermont Committee memeber Tracy Komons. the check represents
$1,000 Lady Zeno has raised since Labor Day by hosting Drag Bingo
at 135 Pearl in Burlington. Photo by Russell Dreher
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Since Labor Day, Lady Zeno has been on a mission. That mission has been to raise money to make Vermont’s GLBT Pride Day 2000 something to remember.
Her method to meet the mission has been Bingo! If things keep going as they have for the past two months, Lady Zeno’s efforts could benefit Pride Vermont to the tune of $5,000.
At 8:00pm every Tuesday evening at 135 Pearl in Burlington, she steps up to the microphone with her Bingo balls in hand and until midnight (with a break at 9:00pm to watch “Will and Grace”) no one doubts that they aren’t in for a good time. She starts off with the rules. “First rule, I’m always right,” she declares. From there she explains that for just $1 you get to play two cards all night. If you win a game and use the “Zeno Free Spot”, you pay a quarter before you’re declared a winner. And then there’s Zeno’s Stupid Tax.
If you ask a question that Zeno thinks you should know the answer to, she fines you a quarter. “What game are we playing?” Quarter. If you shout “Bingo!” and it turns out you don’t have the right spaces filled - quarter.
The winner of the first game of the evening is declared the Bingo Queen. The Queen must wear the rainbow-decorated tiara throughout the night and when their winning number is called, all players must stand and bow to the Queen.
“It’s a very inexpensive evening of entertainment and socializing,” says Bob Bolyard, 135 Pearl’s Tuesday bartender. “Between the dollar for the Bingo, and our dollar drafts and dollar hot dogs, you can have a lot of fun and not spend much money. And help a good cause, too.”
“I’m having so much fun,” says Zeno. “Pride Day is always so exciting, but I want it to be bigger and better - especially for the year 2000. The people who come to play are just awesome, but I couldn’t do it without the support of Bob and the rest of the great staff at 135 Pearl.”
And she has a challenge to announce. “I challenge every drag queen in Vermont to raise at least $500 for Pride Day. If I can do it, so can you!”
Pride is Zeno’s main beneficiary, but two weeks in October she shifted her efforts to raise $240 for the Mary Young Fund.