Raffle gives $6,500 to SD67

Photo: Castanet Staff

Castanet Penticton general manager Jasmine Aantjes with Ede Sartori and Gerald Shannon, the grand-prize winners for a trip to Mexico from Wednesday night's raffle at the Penticton Vees game.

Apart from a 7-1 Vees win on Wednesday for the 2,957 fans at the South Okanagan Events Centre, things were made sweeter during the Valentine's Day game for a local organization and for several lucky fans.

A $2 raffle with three top prizes raised more than $6,500 for the Okanagan Skaha School District's breakfast program — a feat that was lauded by Vees staff.

“It never ceases to amaze me how generous our fan base is... The breakfast program is so important, no student in our city should be expected to learn with a hungry stomach," David Michaud said, Vees director of corporate sponsorship.

"The generosity starts with the businesses who stepped up to provide our fans with these great prizes, and it continued with our fans."

The grand prize of the raffle was a trip for two to Mexico, valued at $2,400, and the second prize was six luxury suite tickets for the upcoming Slayer concert at the SOEC, valued at $1,000. Both of those prizes were supplied by Neil Jamieson of Underwriters Insurance and Jim Cressman of Invictus Entertainment Group.

The third prize, from the Penticton Speedway, was a hornet car rental for a race day at the track, worth $600.

Ede Sartori, who won the trip to Mexico with her husband Gerald Shannon, said she jumped up and screamed when she heard her name called.

"This is the first time we've ever won anything like this. We always enter the raffles and support local people but never won anything... so it's really exciting," Sartori said.

"And we were just actually thinking of going somewhere on holidays, so it was perfect timing."