Over the past year the organization had been selling raffle tickets, about 1,000 sold in all, which translated to roughly $20,000 for the club, said Sheila Shea, fundraising chair.
“That’s a huge bonus for our rink,” said Shea.
The draw was supposed to be held during the bonspiel’s since-cancelled banquet that was to bring out two dozen teams from around the region. But since the event was cancelled, the draw was instead conducted on the morning of Wednesday, March 25 with a small handful of people.
“It would be crazy to risk getting people sick,” said Shea.
Present for the draw at the otherwise completely empty club house were: Les Waldroff, seniors rep; Darcy Grudeski, who sponsored the fishing trip ticket to Tahsis on Vancouver island; Kris Burkholder, club president; Shea; and Terry Nelson, club member.
“It’s very sad to see things not close up as we wish they would have, with our bonspiels and our windups,” said Burkholder before the winning name was drawn.
“We felt we had to do it because everyone else was, and we had to comply with what the town was doing, and the province and the country,” she said.
“But hey, next year it will be bigger and better!”
Organizers “thought long and hard about it” and did not make the decision lightly, she said.
“It is what it is,” she said, adding there was a consensus to err on the side of caution.
Waldroff drew the winning raffle ticket, passing it on to Burkholder. The winner was Sundre resident Dale Blackhurst.
The $20,000 will go to the club’s raffle account, which is amalgamated with funds raised through a casino, said Shea.
“There is a major project that is on the books that needs to be done, but it has not been approved yet,” she said.
