Many winners from Rotary assistance raffle

A raffle that helps grassroots groups and causes has brought smiles to many faces.

In excess of $104,000 was raised from tickets purchased in the Rotary Club of Ballarat South’s annual Community Assistance Raffle.

Every organisation, club or charity that registered to sell the $5 tickets retained 70 per cent of the price.

Fiona Okeson was beaming when she collected her brand-new CX-5 Maxx Sport from Ballarat Mazda.

“It’s the first brand-new car I’ve ever owned,” said Okeson, a driver for nearly 40 years, when receiving the keys last month.

Helen Newall, the raffle’s coordinator, said the initiative helped people, not-for-profits and businesses in many ways.

“As we know, especially at the moment, it’s not easy to raise funds,” she said.

“We have anything from historical societies to schools to Scouts [selling tickets].

“We feel that it’s a three-pronged attack.

“You’ve got the beneficiaries of the not-for-profit organisations. The other people are obviously the prize winners.

“The other thing about it is that…we want to promote Ballarat businesses as well.”

Newall said promotion went further than Ballarat, because tickets were sold statewide and many of the winners were from outside the city.

“We had people up as far as Nhill, down into Melbourne, Port Fairy, Colac, all around…promoting ticket sales throughout Victoria,” she said.

“So, it’s really good sponsorship for the businesses that provide prizes.”

The club received positive feedback for the raffle’s digital format.

The project complements Rotary mottos like ‘service above self’.

“And the other one is ‘unite for good’,” Newall said.

“We think we tick a lot of those themes that Rotary have.”