20 per cent of all remaining tickets sales for the Rotary Club of Grande Prairie’s Dream Home Lottery will be put into a special Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund.
Lottery Manager Melissa Columbe says that while the proceeds from the lottery always go to those in need here in the region, the urgency in which fundraising is needed to help those in Ukraine is vitally important.
“We’ve had a lot of very positive feedback, we’ve had customers reaching out from as far south of Medicine Hat, the Vegreville community has also reached out and is purchasing tickets because they’re thrilled to see this is happening and the club is trying to help out and give back when it can,” she says.
“Tickets have gone from at that time, about 50 per cent sold to now 64 per cent… that’s almost over half of the lottery we can still sell that would go to the fund, and 20 per cent of that going to the emergency relief fund,” she adds.
Columbe says they did a similar emergency relief fund during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic back in March 2020. She adds that if the success of that fundraising effort is any indication, they will be providing a lot of relief for civilians in Eastern Europe.
“In the one month, the final month in the 2020 dream home lottery, we had donated $300,000 to local food banks,” she says. “It’s the same this time around, we just see an outpouring of support from the entire community, and in this case, the entire province,”
Tickets for the Rotary Club of Grande Prairie Dream Home Lottery will remain on sale until April 24th.
