The Kiwanis Club of Olds and Rotary Club of Olds are jointly participating in a new fundraiser: a 50/50 draw.
If it sells out, the winner could receive $10,000. The two clubs would split the other $10,000, minus a small amount to cover printing and other related costs.
The money the two clubs end up with would then be spent on various projects and causes they support, such as the new Rotary Athletic Park under construction, as well as the Kiwanis Music Festival and the hall for scouts and girl guides which is also supported by the Kiwanis Club.
Mackie says the two clubs also support Breakfast For Learners.
Tickets are $5 each and are available at the Olds Albertan,Tasty Thai, H & R Block, Shoppers Drug Mart, Tedds Food Mart, Home Hardware, the Olds Legion and from members of the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs of Olds.
The draw will be held June 21 at the Olds Golf Club during the annual Rotary golf tournament.
"For someone to win $10,000 with a five-dollar investment if we sell out, it's not a bad return," says Peter Premachuk, past-president of the Rotary Club of Olds.
Premachuk says he and Dale Mackie, a member of the Kiwanis Club of Olds, got the idea for the 50/50 draw last year.
"Dale and I were at a social function last year and we started talking about the community support our clubs get and things like that," Premachuk says.
"We just started discussing the fact that maybe there's a way our clubs could not sort of cross too often and do some joint fundraising and use the resources from the clubs. It would help both clubs and give money out to the community.
"They wanted to do a draw or a raffle and we wanted to do one and we just thought let's not confuse the public and as I said, use the resources of both clubs," Premachuk says.
"It might be something that, if the first one's successful, we do a couple of times a year. And the odds of winning this are a lot better than the lottery, I know that."
Originally, they had planned to do a Chase The Ace fundraiser but "you're limited in the amount you can do for Chase The Ace, so over a year of meeting and talking to our clubs it evolved into a joint 50/50 draw," Premachuk adds.
Mackie says under provincial rules, the size of the 50/50 is limited to $20,000, hence the ultimate prize of $10,000.
He notes 4,000 tickets have been printed. If they're all sold, $10,000 will be available to the winner. The prize will be less if fewer tickets are sold.
"We wanted to keep the price of the ticket at $5 so it was probably an easy sell for people," Mackie says.
"It's a good opportunity for our clubs to do something together. We're always trying to get the dollars out there, but you know what? We have the same initiative and that's to put it back into the community. So it's nice that we're doing something together," he adds.
"We really hope to sell out this first one, just to have a big bang so it'll make it a lot easier for future draws. We haven't decided if we'll go quarterly or half yearly yet. Depends on the success."
Premachuk says the 50/50 draw is not replacing either club's high-profile fundraisers such as the Rotary Club's seafood boil or the fall auction organized by the Kiwanis Club.
"Our plan is to continue with our regular fundraisers," Premachuk says.
"The 50/50 fundraiser will assist in either augmenting or topping up the funds we make on other events for all the projects we support. The proceeds from the draw may also allow us to fund more local area projects beyond what we currently budget for."
