Looking for the Luck O’ the Irish? Take a chance for a good cause with the annual Holliston Lions Club Winning O’ the Green Big Raffle, in which you can spend the evening with the Holliston Lions and get a chance to win a $10,000 grand prize.
This year’s event, the 11th annual, will take place on Saturday, March 11, from 7-10 p.m., at the Glen Ellen Country Club, 84 Orchard Street in Millis. Holliston Lion Ed Daniels explains that the venue moved from the Medway V.F.W. due to construction this year.
The event will feature a Silent Auction, a Live Auction, and a buffet dinner (with a cash bar) for two for each ticket sold!
Profits from the events will all be channeled back into the charities the Hollison Lions supports. According to Daniels, “Sometimes funds will support things like scholarships for Holliston High schoolers, and sometimes the money will go toward more of an international program like eye care research. I would say it’s probably 70/30, that more goes to local charities. We have a lot of different charitable giving that we do, and most of it tends to be local charities,” says Daniels, who has been a member of the Holliston Lions for about six years.
Daniels says the Lions are grateful to local businesses who “have generously donated everything from a gas stove to gift cards, to wine baskets,” for the silent auction. “We get donations from many different places, and this year, they amount to $5,000 worth of items.”
The Winning O’ the Green of Holliston was modeled on a successful event the Belmont Lions group had conducted. Unlike that group, the Holliston Lions decided to make the event an entire night out.
Tickets are pulled all night long.
“You’re hoping not to hear your ticket called,” says Daniels. Each time a ticket is drawn, that number is eliminated from the $10,000 grand prize. “They’ll still get a consolation prize,” says Daniels. “All throughout the night, people will be winning consolation prizes at certain points. Most of the time, people are walking away with something at the end of the night.”
The last 10 tickets left at the end of the night get a chance to split the grand prize if the decision is unanimous. If not, tickets are drawn until the decision to split the prize is unanimous, or until one final winner is chosen. Last year, four winners each went home with a $2,500 prize each.
“Some years, we’ve had one person who’s decided not to split it, and the other people are nervous and anxious about their ticket being called next,” says Daniels. “The people who successfully make it through the next round are making more money, but they don’t want to risk losing it all. That makes it exciting and entertaining, where the crowd chants and gets into it. It’s certainly a very fun ending.”
Only 300 tickets will be sold to the Annual Winning O’ the Green.
“It’s important for us to keep the odds very strong that somebody will have a chance of winning,” says Daniels. At $100 for a dinner for two, with most people walking away with some sort of consolation, the evening is well worth the charity donation. This year, tickets will be available through the Holliston Lions website, www.hollistonlions.org, as well as through individual Holliston Lions members.
Issue Date:
March, 2017
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