The popular "Chase the Ace", which many communities are getting into right now, is also one of Langbank’s latest fundraisers.
It’s simple. Purchase a $5 ticket and be entered to have your chance to draw the ace of spades to win the jackpot.
Organizers select one ticket from the pool, and the winner automatically gets 20 per cent of the money that's been raised. Meanwhile, 50 per cent of the money goes to the Langbank Recreation Board, and the remaining 30 per cent is added to the building jackpot.
In addition to winning 20 per cent of the money, the winning ticket holder is invited to draw a card from a standard 52-card deck. If they draw the ace of spades, they win the jackpot.
So far, this year's fundraiser has gone on for three weeks, so although your chances of drawing the ace of spades are low, there’s still a chance.
“The money will put the board back on a solid financial footing,” explains Geoff Hewson, president of the Langbank Recreation Board.
“Certainly, and hopefully sooner rather than later, things will start to get back to normal,” said Hewson. “We want to do more than just exist for the sake of existing. In the meantime there’s still the expenses to cover. We need to make sure that we have adequate funds to keep our facility at a usable level.”
“Purchasing tickets by e-transfer adds quite a bit of complexity including the reporting and restrictions in place,” explains Hewson. “The plus side of having a lot of hoops to jump through, SLGA will give us back a portion of what we make as a grant. Hopefully e-transfers will allow the committee to sell more tickets.”
“The e-transfer is huge because we’re not allowed to have large indoor gatherings. Depending on how 2021 plays out, the group is hoping to have in person attendance before the year is done,” said Hewson.
Tickets are over half sold for the Chase the Ace in Langbank.
“We’re ecstatic with the support we’ve received from current and past residents,” says Hewson.
“We see other communities have success with Chase The Ace as a fundraiser,” explains Hewson as to why the decision was made to try it. “Donna Worley was the driving force in getting us started.”
“At our AGM (annual general meeting), we decided we wanted to have three to four main fundraisers a year. The population base just isn’t there to be having something once a month.”
Approximately $800 has been raised for the facility in the first few weeks of holding Chase the Ace.
“The good news is instead of selling individual tickets once a week, we really aggressively approached the idea of ‘buy one year’s worth of tickets’ and then we would enter a ticket each week. Prepaying tickets for a month or two at a time is also an option,” said Hewson.
Hewson goes on to explain: “Ninety percent of our ticket sales so far have probably been for four or more weeks. Because we’re limited to the amount of tickets we can sell, it restarts if the ace is drawn. Let’s say if we sell out of all of our tickets and someone has four weeks left then all of the tickets go into that last draw.”
“If the whole thing sells out, that’s $26,000, and of that the Rec Board could make up to $13,000 and then the weekly winners would make just over $5,000 and just over $7,000 for the Ace of Spades.”
There have been three winners so far. Draws are done live on the Langbank Chase the Ace Facebook page every Wednesday at 6 p.m.
To purchase your tickets please call at Geoffrey 736-7836, Marlene at 577-8271, Amanda at 577-3257 or Adrienne at 421-8538.
Other fundraisers the Langbank Rec Board has done in the past include the ever popular Sno-Pitch Tourney and Spring Trade Show. They did their first Drive-Thru Fall Supper in 2020 which was really successful.
“We’re hoping to do more of those in the future. That was really successful. We had really good reviews,” explains Hewson.
Hopefully, if COVID-19 settles down, the committee can get back to having their Sno-Pitch and Trade Show.
To rent the Langbank Community Hall please call Adrienne at 421-8538.
