By Emily Keller

cash and camping

Swan City Rotary Club to miss Cash and Camping Lottery for first time in 20 years

Apr 16, 2020 | 12:56 PM

The Swan City Rotary Club announced last month that they have decided to cancel the 2020 Cash and Camping Lottery due to COVID-19.

“Up until Cash and Camping this year, we ran forty consecutive lotteries,” said Dave Cook, Lottery Chair for the Swan City Rotary Club. “And I think we’ve handed out over 11-million dollars over those twenty years to local non-profits and charities and other activities and programs supported by the Swan City Rotary Club.”

Cook says the Swan City Rotary Club has been around for about 35 years, and they currently have around 120 members. The Cash and Camping Lottery offers various prizes, including RV’s, vehicles, and cash prizes. Cook says last year, the Cash and Camping Lottery raised approximately $300,000.

He says they did have seven partners to receive proceeds of the Cash and Camping ticket sales, as well as the funds being spread throughout the region.

“The money that our club raises through this is given out to roughly sixty different charities and non-profits in the Grande Prairie area every year, so, the impact is far greater by our decision to cancel the lottery than just the seven partner groups that we have for each lottery. It goes a lot further than that.”

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Cook says most of their ticket sales take place at the Cash and Camping building, and that the amount social interaction led them cancelling rather than postponing.

“People have enjoyed over many, many years to go down and see the latest RV’s and prizes that we’ve offered, and that involves a lot of social interaction, and two-thirds of our ticket sales is based on that. So, there’s a tremendous health risk that’s posed to our volunteers and customers.”

He adds that in the meantime, he encourages the community to support other organizations and non-profits, including the Salvation Army and even the Dream Home Lottery, which is ran by the Rotary Club of Grande Prairie.

The 2020 Cars for Christmas Lottery is still scheduled to happen this year in the fall and winter.