Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
The lucky winner of the Kindersley Community Service Group’s Chase the Ace draw will walk away with a mitt full of cash from a growing ace pot.
Gary Hamilton, a member of the Kindersley Elks and a spokesperson for the draw organizers, said the ace pot has grown to more than $2,440 since the fundraiser started. The first draw was held on Oct. 5. The draws are made at the Elks Hall every other Thursday.
Four local service organizations – the Elks, Legion, Rotary Club and Masonic Lodge – are a part of the service group. Proceeds from the Chase the Ace draw will go to support the town’s aquatic centre project.
Tickets for the draw are available at the Town of Kindersley administration office, Lela’s Music Centre, Sharper Image, Canadian Event & Party Supply, Hangers Drycleaning and Fabcare, and Pro-Bilt Structures. You can also contact Hamilton or David Burke of the Legion for tickets.
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The draw on Dec. 14 will be the sixth since the fundraiser started. The winner gets to draw a card from the deck. If they pull the Ace of Spades, they win the ace pot.
Each draw winner also wins 20 per cent of the money from tickets sold over the two-week period leading up to each draw. The draw winner gets 20 per cent of the money and another 30 per cent goes into the ace pot. The remaining 50 per cent goes to the aquatic centre.
The service group has a one-year licence to hold the draw. That means there will be a maximum of 26 draw dates if no one pulls the Ace of Spades before the licence runs out. If the fundraiser runs for all 26 draws, tickets will be drawn until there’s a winner, Hamilton said. If the Ace of Spades is drawn, the service group will apply for a new licence and the process will start over with a new pot.
Hamilton said someone drew the Ace of Clubs and it gave the group a scare. He noted that he keeps an eye on other Chase the Ace draws and he has seen those pots grow to $12,000. He estimated that the ace pot for the local fundraiser could grow to as much as $15,000 if it runs for all 26 draws.
Only one ticket is drawn every two weeks. If a person’s name is drawn, the draw winner is given 30 minutes to get to the Elks Hall to pull a card from the deck. If the person doesn’t make it there in the 30-minute window, the ace pot carries over to the next draw.
The service group wants people to show up at the Elks Hall for the draw. The hall is open from 6 to 8 p.m. on draw nights, but people are not showing up.
“We’d like to have some people come to the draw,” he said. The winning tickets are drawn at 8 p.m. and it’s exciting for people at the hall. “We’d like to put together some activities in the new year just to see what we can raise.”
According to Hamilton, the draw has already raised more than $4,000 for the aquatic centre and about $1,600 has been paid out to the first five winners.
So far, he said the fundraiser has gone “as good as can be expected.” The bar is open for draws and there’s a draw on Dec. 28, he added.
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