The Riverside Foundation for Healthcare’s November 50/50 will draw in just a few days, if you’re looking to bolster your bank account for the rest of your Christmas shopping. Once November’s winner is drawn, ticket sales for December’s draw will start, which make great gifts.
Allison Cox is the director of the Riverside Foundation for Healthcare, she says the current Canada Post strike may hurt the foundation’s bottom line this year.
“It’s definitely having an impact already, because we weren’t able to get our appeal out in the mail prior to the strike happening,” she said. “With when we received all the materials in the office and getting it all organized, we had plans to get everything dropped off at the post office, I had my fingers crossed that the strike was going to be rolling rather than national and unfortunately that’s not the way it went.”
Typically the foundation would be sending out material for its end of the year campaign across the district encouraging folks to donate in time to receive tax receipts by the end of the year.
“Once we sent out the appeal letter they hit every mail box in the Rainy River District,” Cox said. “We do have a separate appeal for the east end of the district from the west end of the district to kind of let people give to something that’s closer to them. Typically we’ll receive anywhere from $25,000-$40,000 in donations between November and the end of December from those appeal letters. So it is quite a big hit if we aren’t able to get the letters out there. Even if the strike ends we’ll still be dealing with postal delays and everything so, fingers crossed it ends right away and there’s not too many delays and we can still get them out to mailboxes, but if not we’re going to try some other marketing tactics to let people be aware of what’s going on with the appeal.”
For the west end of the District the foundation is currently fundraising for a new point of care hematology analyzer for the Rainy River Health Centre, which can analyze blood work for certain values. In the East end of the District they’re fundraising for new external curtains for residents’ rooms at Rainy Crest Long-Term Care.
The November 50/50 is currently over $6,000 with a bonus in place for a draw of two $50 gift certificates for Red Apron foods redeemable at Ski’s Variety if the jackpot reaches $10,000. Ticket holders can add an extra entry for the draw if they post a photo on the Foundation’s Facebook page wearing buffalo plaid.
The draw for the November 50/50 will be on Nov. 29 with sales for the December 50/50 starting the same day. The December 50/50’s early bird draw is Dec. 11 for $500 and a second early bird draw will be held Dec. 20 for a pontoon boat trip package from Rainy Lake Adventures to be used next summer.
Tickets for the 50/50 draws are online only at riverside5050.ca and buyers can pick up different amounts of numbers for $10, $20, 40, and $60 depending on how many chances at the jackpot they want.
Cox also says that donating online is the easiest way for people to give as the end of the year approaches and the postal strike remains in place, the Foundation’s website is riversidefoundation.ca.
