Rotary Launches Annual Christmas Raffle
Katherine Thomas, a single mother of two received keys to a brand new home on Wednesday morning courtesy of the Rotary Club of Belize. Undoubtedly, the assistance goes a long way in helping the needy Belize City family. Throughout the year, the local chapter of the Rotary Club undertakes various initiatives through which it is able to give back to the community. To do so, an annual raffle is held in December when one lucky winner gets to drive off with a brand new vehicle. The aim is to sell a thousand tickets, the proceeds of which are then turned over into the various causes. Rotarian Francis ‘Cisco’ Woods tells us more about this year’s event.
Francis ‘Cisco’ Woods, Member, Rotary Club of Belize
Francis ‘Cisco’ Woods
“We have a Toyota Hilux that we’re raffling this year. The raffle date is set for December twenty-third but it is limited tickets, it’s only one thousand tickets that we’re printing. Once those are sold we are not printing another ticket, we will draw the raffle as soon as they are sold. Even if we don’t sell the complete one thousand we need to cover the cost of the vehicle for sure. If we feel we are comfortable by December twenty-third at the latest, we will be raffling that truck. And the truck will provide, we do two main fundraisers for the year, the raffle and then the play that we host at the Bliss, those are our major things and those two things make us realize our target which is about eighty to a hundred thousand dollars which is what we use every year to do projects like this house building, the scholarships, the Gift of Life Project, wheelchairs and of course we do a little feeding program to primary schools in Belize City.”
Reporter
“How long has this vehicle raffle been going on and what has been the reception from supporters in the vehicle raffle?”
Francis ‘Cisco’ Woods
“The reception has been good. Always. From the day we started. Last year we sold one thousand tickets and we hope to do the same this year, we just started. We got it off a little late so we are a month late in starting which puts a little pressure on us to sell all the tickets. But we have faith that we’re gonna do it by December twenty-third. We want that new person seated in the vehicle before Christmas Day.”
Winner of last year’s Rotary Christmas Raffle was Samuel Nicholson.
