Alan Kim | The Roanoke Times

Surrounded by rolled up wrestling pads, Wanda Epperley is the caller for the evening at Friday night bingo at Hawkeye Hall, where the Christiansburg Blue Demon Wrestling Club practices. Epperley is the organizer of Friday and Saturday bingo games hosted by the wrestling club as a fundraiser.

Want to go?

• What: Blue Demon Bingo
• When: 10 a.m. Friday Beach Bingo; 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday Night Bingo
• Where: Hawkeye Hall, 407 Roanoke St., Christiansburg

The games don't begin until 6:30 Friday evening, but the bingo players walk in as early as 4 o'clock.

Wiley Goad, a Korean War veteran, showed up at Hawkeye Hall close to 4:30 p.m. on the Friday after Christmas. He was the second bingo player to arrive.

"He's late," said Pam Gardner, who worked concessions. "He's usually here around 4."

Goad walked to a vending machine, bought a Diet Coke, which he nursed all evening, and began moving three wooden chairs to the left side of the room. He showed up early because he wanted to claim the comfortable seats.

Bingo night at Hawkeye Hall is a popular draw in Christiansburg. More than 100 people from the New River and Roanoke valleys attend Blue Demon Bingo on Friday and Saturday nights -- 51 of 52 weeks a year -- with daubers in hand and hopes of winning big.

Bingo night also brings a group of volunteers with similar hopes of winning -- but on wrestling mats. Family members of the Christiansburg Blue Demon Wrestling Club donate their time to pass out bingo cards, serve food and sell bingo instant-wins to help pay for wrestlers' trips to top-ranked tournaments across the country. The competition at elite levels has helped the club, a nonprofit group, become one of the premiere wrestling groups in Virginia.

The club will soon announce a name change to "Virginia Elite Wrestling Club" to emphasize its growing status, club supporters said.

"Bingo allows us to go on the tournaments," Gardner said. Her son, Cody, is a senior Blue Demon wrestler.

On this Friday, her son was among 40 wrestlers and coaches who were staying overnight in Canonsburg, Pa., for the PowerAid Wrestling Tournament, considered one of the top five tournaments in the nation.

More than half the money raised on bingo night covers the cost of facilities, equipment maintenance and trips for the club's elementary, middle school and high school wrestlers.

Though club members would not give specific figures on how much money they raise each year, Brad Taylor, the nonprofit group's treasurer, said profits are small with $250 of each $1,000 raised going to the club. The rest goes back into the bingo player pool.

"Bingo makes more money for the bingo players than it does for whatever organization you're operating with," Taylor said.

One hundred forty-seven bingo players showed up to play bingo Dec. 26. Some bingo players didn't think too much about where their money was being spent.

But the wrestling signs are everywhere. Rolled-up mats cover the walls. Hawkeye Hall doubles as a wrestling gym Monday through Thursday.

Six wrestling trophies and two plaques are visible at the front entrance. Take a few steps forward and you'll see 35 trophies and half a dozen plaques.

There are two plaques near the stairs congratulating volunteers for the hundreds of hours they've put into the club.

Wanda Epperly's name is on both plaques. Her son, Terry Epperly Jr., wrestled for the Blue Demons last year.

On Thursday nights, throughout the year, mother and son come to Hawkeye Hall at about 8:30 p.m. to pull out the tables and chairs for bingo the following day. It takes them about three hours to do it.

"I'm here for the kids," Wanda Epperly said. "I'm not here for anything else."

On this bingo night, Epperly was the caller. She sometimes plays bingo. On her last visit, she lost $1,000 on Friday and Saturday bingo games.

She doesn't mind volunteering but dislikes it when the bingo players tell her to hurry up or slow down.

"They'll say 'Hurry up! Hurry up!' " she said during intermission. "I told them to stop or I'm going home."

The bingo players, young and old, are a picky bunch. They do not like it when the volunteers talk or if there's any noise that distracts them from the game.

They can also get emotional.

Throughout the night, shouts of "Bingo!" were met with groans and gasps of "No!" and "Oh!" by other players.

The volunteers know to let the games play out and let the bingo players settle in.

"If Wanda goes fast, they'll complain," said Dana Weightman, a volunteer. "If we start making too much noise they will also complain."

The bingo players are regulars and the volunteers know them quite well, giving some of them nicknames.

Carl Letner, 62, of Pulaski is called "Scrooge" because he never buys bingo instant-wins. He said he's happy to support the wrestling team but more so to keep "old people off the streets, out of the bars."

Dorothy Hodge and Chris Robinson, who both have more than 35 years of bingo-playing experience, have played in places as far away as Atlantic City and New York.

They prefer Christiansburg, however, because of the wrestlers it benefits.

"It gives the wrestlers uniforms," Hodge said. "They've done real well."

For the most part, bingo is all fun and games with some lucky charms.

Jane Vaught of Pembroke won $300 playing bingo instant games. She brought a picture of her granddaughter to Hawkeye Hall for luck.

"I said, 'Granny, needs the money,' " Vaught said. And she won.

Her husband, William, had a green frog but he no longer takes it to bingo.

"The luck ran out on the frog," he said. "So I threw it away."