Kailee Mills Foundation opened hearts – and purse strings – with its Designer Bag Bingo event

THE WOODLANDS, TX – The Kailee Mills Foundation enjoyed hundreds of people hitting the Bareback Bar & Icehouse for a special fundraising evening. The Designer Bag Bingo event was originally envisioned as a smaller affair to raise funds and awareness to both the foundation and the icehouse, with people competing over their bingo cards for designer purses including Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Kate Spade, Coach, Michael Kors, and more.

No one was as surprised as the administration of the foundation when the entire bar – with a capacity of around 500 – was reduced to standing room only as hundreds of eager bingoers swarmed in and bought their cards, ready for action. Not an empty seat remained.

Briana McCulloch, executive director of the Kailee Mills Foundation, was particularly thrilled at the turnout.

“We’ve never done a purse bingo before, but we heard that it was a wonderful charity event, and we’ve never had an event just for the ladies, so we thought it would be really fun to get women and moms involved; particularly since moms really understand the need for seatbelt safety,” she said. “This is to raise funds for our programs, as well as for our scholarships – we recently just gave out $82,000 in scholarship awards this month. We thought this would be a small, intimate event, but over the last month it just exploded. We’ll definitely do it next year, probably at a larger event.”

The foundation’s mission is to reduce fatality and injury from non-seat belt use, while also providing financial and emotional support to families experiencing loss and hardship from vehicle crashes. It was formed in honor of and named after Kailee Mills, a local teenager who perished in an auto accident after releasing her seatbelt just before it crashed.

To date, Kailee Mills Foundation has reached 445.2 million people through the Click It or Ticket Campaigns, over 40.5 million people through its Seat Belt Safety Awareness Program, provided $358,600 in Family Assistance, helping 78 families, and provided over $21,000 in First Responder Support.