Hospice Georgina starts round two of Catch the Ace raffle

By: Michelle Poirier

Hospice Georgina has started the second round of their popular Catch the Ace raffle, after a successful first round that went on for 50 weeks and awarded one lucky winner a final jackpot of $52,525.50.

The second rounds’ week one winner was Rosa Gosselin, who won $179.00 with card #17, a 5 of Diamonds.

Catch the Ace, based on the card game Chase the Ace, is a progressive jackpot, multiple-draw, weekly raffle, licensed through the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).

“As Hospice Georgina is only partially funded, our annual operating budget depends not only on grants and donations but also on fundraising,” Laurie Knapp, Office Manager at Hospice Georgina, said.

“The fundraising portion is at least 33 per cent of our budget. We thought the Catch the Ace game would be fun and was something that had never been tried in Georgina.”

Part of the raffle’s appeal, besides a progressive jackpot, is it’s easy to play.

According to the AGCO website, the person with the weekly winning ticket selects one card for the deck. If the Ace of Spades is selected, they will win the progressive jackpot and a percentage of the proceeds from the draw.

If the Ace of Spades is not selected, they only get the percentage of the proceeds, and the progressive prize portion of the ticket sales is rolled over into the progressive jackpot for the next draw.

During the second round, tickets will be sold in tiers, three tickets for $5.00, 10 tickets for $10.00 and 60 tickets for $20.00.

The first round ended before COVID-19 lockdowns started, so this time around, they have had to move the raffle completely online and are not selling physical tickets.

Hospice Georgina will collect 50 per cent of the sales, and that will help them continue to support their clients and community by providing their programs at no charge, Ms. Knapp said.

“Hospice Georgina is a caring community of trained volunteers dedicated to providing non-medical emotional and spiritual support to all people in Georgina with a life-threatening illness, and also to their families and caregivers,” she said.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Hospice Georgina staff and volunteers started to work at home, continuing regular contact with seniors through phone calls or ZOOM meetings, Ms. Knapp said.

They also got a grant from the United Way that allowed them to give additional support to their clients, including purchasing tablets and internet service for seniors, so they could see familiar faces while stuck at home.
“What joy it was to see a 95-year-old participant, who had never been on such a device, light up in amazement as they spoke with the other familiar faces in the group. They said, ‘Are you all sitting in your own homes?'” Mr. Knapp said.

Though Ms. Knapp said they would miss seeing the community through their physical ticket sales around Georgina, they hope people will still purchase tickets online to support Hospice Georgina, and hope others will help the older supporters if they need assistance with online payments for tickets.

The draws will be every Wednesday until someone has “Caught the Ace.”

Ticket sales for Week 3 will end at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, August 12. The draw will be live-streamed to announce the randomly selected week’s winner.

To purchase tickets visit, www.hospicegeorginacta.com.