“Forget the Covid-19 torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” pretty much represents the West Rainy River District Lions and their approach to fund raising and serving their communities. In 2020 WRRD raised over $30,000 to invest in eligible community charitable projects, primarily through its Pontoon Boat Raffle in conjunction with the Rainy River Walleye Tournament. And although Covid 19 forced the cancellation of RRWT and many other community festivals, the WRRD Lions through some innovative ticket distribution and sales efforts managed to host an extremely successful raffle selling out its entire supply of tickets by late August.
Bolstered by 2020s Pontoon Raffle success a similar raffle is planned for 2021. The first challenge was obtaining a pontoon boat for this year’s raffle.
“My supplier, Princecraft, is basically, 100 per cent sold out on this season’s production. If I ordered today delivery would be beyond September 2021,” says Don Foster of Nestor Falls Marine, partner supplier for the WRRD Lions. Covid-19 has resulted in a boom in recreational equipment. It seems since people can’t gather with others families are investing in themselves by enhancing their own recreational equipment. Following the September 2020 draw, the WRRD Lions made the financial commitment for the Pontoon Boat Draw to continue in 2021 with an order for a Princecraft 21 ft, Vectra LT from Nestor Falls Marine.
The draw will run in conjunction with the 2021 RRWT scheduled for late September 2021. Hopefully this Covid-19 pandemic will be conquered by then allowing larger community festivals. Tickets sale details will be announced in February and will again focus on online sales – an approach that was wildly successful in 2020. Purchasers simply do an e-transfer to the WRRD Pontoon Raffle ticket site and a confirmation of receipt along with a photo of their ticket will be emailed back to them. Tickets will also be available from local merchants and WRRD Lions members in line with any Covid-19 restrictions. Prizes will be similar to the 2020 Raffle but this year we plan to add a $1000.00 Early Bird Draw in July. Details and tickets will be available later in February 2021 so watch for the news next month.
