{"id":123132,"date":"2026-06-13T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=123132"},"modified":"2026-06-10T16:42:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:42:47","slug":"many-winners-from-rotary-assistance-raffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/many-winners-from-rotary-assistance-raffle\/","title":{"rendered":"Many winners from Rotary assistance raffle"},"content":{"rendered":"

A raffle that helps grassroots groups and causes has brought smiles to many faces.<\/p>\n

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

Every organisation, club or charity that registered to sell the $5 tickets retained 70 per cent of the price.<\/p>\n

Fiona Okeson was beaming when she collected her brand-new CX-5 Maxx Sport from Ballarat Mazda.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

Helen Newall, the raffle’s coordinator, said the initiative helped people, not-for-profits and businesses in many ways.<\/p>\n

“As we know, especially at the moment, it’s not easy to raise funds,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We have anything from historical societies to schools to Scouts [selling tickets].<\/p>\n

“We feel that it’s a three-pronged attack.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got the beneficiaries of the not-for-profit organisations. The other people are obviously the prize winners.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Community Assistance Raffle winner Fiona Okeson with Rotary Club of Ballarat South president Alan Crouch. Photo: Rotary Club of Ballarat South.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

“The other thing about it is that…we want to promote Ballarat businesses as well.”<\/p>\n

Newall said promotion went further than Ballarat, because tickets were sold statewide and many of the winners were from outside the city.<\/p>\n

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

“So, it’s really good sponsorship for the businesses that provide prizes.”<\/p>\n

The club received positive feedback for the raffle’s digital format.<\/p>\n

The project complements Rotary mottos like ‘service above self’.<\/p>\n

“And the other one is ‘unite for good’,” Newall said.<\/p>\n

“We think we tick a lot of those themes that Rotary have.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":123140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-123132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMany winners from Rotary assistance raffle - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rotary Assistance Raffle raises more than $104,000 for grassroots groups, charities and clubs across Victoria, with prizes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/many-winners-from-rotary-assistance-raffle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Many winners from Rotary assistance raffle - 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