The Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation’s annual Truck Raffle is roughly 10 per cent sold, with this year’s raffle seeing the addition of three early bird draws.
Annual Giving & Lotteries Specialist Pamela Haapa-aho explains this year there are 25,000 tickets to sell with all the proceeds going back to funding the most important needs at the Chinook Regional Hospital.
“The biggest project that we’re working on is the bringing, is the cardiac campaign and so what it is, is it’s the cardiac center of excellence that is raising $30 million and we are a third of the way there,” Haapa-aho says. “[As well] there is the dialysis unit redevelopment… Inpatient care, cancer care; a LYNAC machine is kind of the big one on the list right now and it’s a targeted radiation machine, which will really support cancer recovery.”
This year the addition of the early bird raffles, which will happen on June 19th, July 17th and August 28th, will give people extra chances to win before the big draw is done for the grand prize Ford 1500 XLT Truck on September 9th. These early bird prizes include $2,500 in cash, $2,500 in gas cards and a WestJet flight for two, wherever they fly to their destinations.
Tickets are sold for $25 for one, three for $50 or 10 for $100 online or in person and each ticket bought before the first early bird draw will go into all four draws and so on.
Haapa-aho says for those who are thinking about buying a ticket or even donating to Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation, she wants to remind them it is not the size of the gift that matters.
“Every dollar goes back into improving our health care. That helps people, in the end, recover faster. So they’re going through their treatments, they’re getting home faster. The equipment and the initiatives that we support are creating better health, which in the long run really does save costs and travel or prescriptions or stuff like that.”
“Everybody at some point of their life really has themselves or a family member or friend go through something that the hospital is utilized for.”
According to Haapa-aho, last year’s raffle raised around $100,000.
More information on the raffle including where to buy tickets can be found here.