Members of the Batavia Rotary Club were introduced to a new fundraising concept at their lunch meeting today that as far as anybody knows hasn't been tried in Genesee County before.
It's called a meat raffle and Andrea Aldinger, pictured, has participated in such raffles in Wyoming County.
She demonstrated the raffle for members today because the club will be hosting one April 7 at the Sacred Heart Social Center.
How a meat raffle works is, people pay to attend, in this case $5, and then they can buy raffle tickets for each item as it becomes available. For example, the person running the raffle holds up five pounds of bacon and says the bacon will go to the next auction winners. Participants then have five minutes to buy raffle tickets, each numbered from 1-7, for $1 each. Then the person spins the raffle wheel and each person with the winning number (yes, there can be more than one winner) wins five pounds of bacon.
There will be 20 such raffles, including not just bacon, but steaks, chickens, turkey, roasts and ribs.
Aldinger said participants need to bring a cooler to hold their meat, because they will win meat.
She also recommended making it a social event, getting a table of 10 as a group and bringing your own snacks and food dishes to eat during the three-hour raffle. The club will provide two kegs of beer, free until it runs out, and sodas will be free. There will also be a hosted bar, hosted by the church.
Raffle tickets will only be sold at the event, but there are separate prizes, including a wheelbarrow of booze and a freezer filled with meat, that people enter to win. See a local Rotarian for tickets.
