Andrew- celebrating 24 years with Rotary!

Paul- celebrating 34 years with Rotary!

 

VFL- Final numbers are in — $17K was made!

 

Everton- KW Humane Society is looking to make an expansion with a Community Education Building. The board is considering having our club be a Pet Pantry Room Donor that will be a $100K commitment over the next 4 years. This will be discussed more at the next board meeting then a vote will be held — just something to start thinking about.

 

Bill Pegg is still looking for Bingo volunteers for Thursday August 29 Breakfast Session

 

Kelly, Jessica, Spiro, Mark

 

Pot - $67.50 Participants - Ray, Spiro, Ray — no winner!

 

 

Discussed the past, present and future of the family business.

 

Mark’s grandfather was a veterinarian and they had a hobby farm on the land near the train tracks. They were also mennonite so they had lots of “side hustles” and he worked with JM Schneider approving cattle to be sent to the slaughterhouse and sold cattle to China.

 

Growth- the business all started with Jonas, Ester, and Lawrence. They started a small dairy business that eventually added a snack shop which turned into taking on catering gigs with the vision of using the pond and park as a place for families to come and enjoy after church. Further down the road they built the Embassy Room and Roller Rink — this all wasn’t planned, it just happened to keep evolving over time!  

 

Mark went to Michigan State University, the plan was after he graduated he would come back and work with the family business. When he eventually graduated he called up his dad Lawrence for a job and there wasn’t an opportunity at that time for him. Mark then started interviewing with other companies and was hired by the Hyatt in Boston and Atlanta. He was successful in his endeavours and was being headhunted to open other hotels but then got the call from his family to come back home to work for their business.

 

At this time, Bingeman Centre Drive was being built and the question remained — are there things to draw people in? Mark said the answer was no. This is when he began to start planning attractions and business ventures decades out and start thinking of things that will keep people coming back.

 

It started with the waterpark, but with this you only have 90 days out of the year to make all your money and profit. This is also a seasonal job so there is high employee turnover. They maximized this by opening Funworx, an all year attraction to help keep them afloat.

 

Now Bingeman’s has opened KingPin and go-karting and Bingemans is now an 80,000 sq.ft Family Entertainment Centre with new additions to the business such as Cedar Spoon, an indigenous culinary experience, more bowling and go-karting venues to be opened across the province and more!

 

Bingeman’s attributes their success to remaining aligned with everyone coming in and fostering a dynamic and fluid workforce — they are always in coaching mode!

 

Looking Forward:

- more KingPin across the province

- more go-karting partnerships

- new catering opportunities

- their success mimics that of the Region so with more growth seen there, the more growth is seen at Bingeman’s!