Photo Supplied: Swan City Rotary Club Facebook

By Abby Zieverink

Cars for Christmas Lottery

Cars for Christmas lottery hoping for one last push to support local organizations

Dec 21, 2021 | 1:23 PM

With nine days left for the 2021 Cars for Christmas Lottery officials are reaching out to the community for help.

This is the 22nd edition of the Cars for Christmas lottery and so far, ticket sales are lacking compared to the 2020 edition.

Swan City Rotary Lottery chair Pam Nordin says they are hoping to see an uptick in sales over the next few days.

“We always have a push between Christmas and New Year’s, or Christmas and the final day which is the 30th and we’re hoping to pick up the sales then,” she explained.

The goal of the lottery every year is to sell out of tickets so they can help local organizations in the community. The more tickets sold means the more money the organizations will receive.

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“We are a bit behind, and we don’t want to become complacent. We are doing everything we can to bring home as much money as we can for our partner groups,” added Nordin.

The Centre for Creative Arts, Grande Prairie & District Catholic Schools Education Foundation, Hythe & District Agricultural Society, PARDS, Resource Centre for Suicide Prevention, United Way Alberta Northwest, Regional EMS Foundation, Grande Prairie Gymnastics Society, Swan City Rotary Club, Rotaract Club of Grande Prairie, Rotary Club of Grande Prairie, After Five are all organizations that will benefit from the lottery.

Nordin tells EverythingGP on a normal year, these organizations host their biggest fundraisers of the year, however, due to the pandemic they have not been able to host many of these events.

“At the end of the day fundraisers like this are what they are relying on now to run their programming and Cars for Christmas tickets are going to help a lot of organizations meet their goals and their responsibility with programming.”

Nordin adds it is hard to gauge why ticket sales are down roughly 10 percent compared to 2020’s Cars for Christmas lottery, however, she explains there could be a couple of different reasons.

“It could just be people are waiting to buy their tickets, we don’t know, it’s a hard thing to evaluate but I know this community and I know they are going to step up and they are going to help us out.”

She mentions any of the winners of the top five prizes can change a cash payout instead.

“So, if someone wins a vehicle that maybe doesn’t suit their lifestyle or they would just like the cash, we are offering a cash payout.”

As of December 21, the 50/50 pot is at over $230,000, the winner taking home half the pot.

Tickets can be purchased on the Cars for Christmas lottery website or at a sales kiosk in Prairie Mall.

The last day to grab tickets for the lottery is December 30 at 11:59 p.m., draw date is set for January 12, 2022.