Fall brings change, but also some favourites of the season, including the largest joint venture for the Rotary Clubs of Powell River, the Great Grocery Raffle Plus.
The raffle features five lucky winners every December receiving $2,000 each in gift cards from five participating sponsors: Canadian Tire, Save-On-Foods, FreshCo, Pacific Point Market and Quality Foods.
Community residents still looking to buy their tickets in person from a friendly Rotarian outside one of their favourite stores still can, in very limited quantities, at some locations. With the threat of COVID-19 still present, Rotary has continued its online process this year, where people can purchase tickets through its dedicated website, greatgroceryraffle.ca, to enter to win.
New this year are packages that include single tickets for $10, three-pack tickets for $25, and 10-pack tickets for $75. Also new this year is an early bird draw worth more than $1,000 in value.
Although online sales don’t offer the same personal touch Rotarians are accustomed to, the raffle is still for a good cause and prizes remain as great as ever with favourable odds of winning; only 6,500 tickets are available.
“We always look forward to the Great Grocery Raffle as it gives us a chance to let people know about Rotary and the great projects the clubs are involved in here in our community and internationally,” explains Rotary evening club president Katya Gustafson. “While we share our stories, we meet new friends and offer an opportunity for the community to get involved by buying tickets to help raise funds for future projects and by giving them a chance to win amazing prizes; the more money we raise the bigger impact we can have.
“We have a core objective of eradicating polio worldwide but we are also very involved locally with all kinds of service projects to make our community better, and internationally to alleviate suffering, promote peace and make education more accessible.”
The qathet region has a diverse Rotary presence with the addition of Rotaract and EarlyAct clubs to the already established evening, sunrise and Interact clubs. Powell River Rotary is growing not only in size but in ages.
In addition to the successful grocery raffle, the clubs work together on several other community projects, most recently, the “Read to Me” project for kindergarten students in the district.
“This project provides a beautiful hardcover book and book bag to promote literacy, and qualified for grant funds from the Rotary Foundation with the balance coming from fundraising like our grocery raffle,” adds Gustafson. “As with many groups, Rotary has always portrayed a fun and competitive spunk when it comes to fundraising, and the grocery raffle has always been the largest. Nothing is at stake for Rotarians other than knowing they raised the most.”
Again, this year Rotarians have each been assigned their own website URL for ticket sales. Anyone wishing to continue purchasing from their favourite member can reach out to them if they haven’t heard from them already.
“Last year we took the raffle to the internet, this year we upped our game and offered tiered pricing, which has proven to be very popular,” says fundraising chair Monica Peckford. “The 10-pack tickets, the best deal, account for 57 per cent of our sales so far. There are limited numbers of three and 10-pack tickets, so get them before they sell out.”
Early bird entry deadline is Monday, November 15, at 11 am; it will be drawn at noon the same day.
Purchase deadline for main raffle tickets is midnight on Friday, December 10. The draw takes place at 11 am on Saturday, December 11.
For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to greatgroceryraffle.ca.
