ROCANVILLE — There’s a lot of work that goes into Rocanville’s Lucky Lottery campaign which takes place every fall, and organizers began planning for this year’s Lucky Lottery last week.
“We’re expecting to give more money back this year,” said board chair Kirby Fowler after a planning meeting held Feb. 18. “We’ve done a few things different. We reached out to some local businesses, and they have very generously donated some prizes and some prize money, so we’ve reduced our costs that way.”
Last year saw the team get creative with some highly-entertaining videos that they posted online to drum up ticket sales.
“Some of our videos were getting 20,000 views, and every time you get somebody looking at it, you get somebody thinking about buying a ticket,” Fowler said.
The goal is to start ticket sales in early June, but that depends on how quickly the permit process through the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority takes.
“Our goal is to shoot for June, but if it happens to fall into July, it’s not that big a deal,” Fowler said. “The SLGA process to get approved and get everything in place is a little onerous, so we’re not going to rush that. We’re going to take our time, and we’ve had great conversations with those folks and know what they’re looking for. We put in our application this year, and it just goes the way we submit it instead of the back and forth like we have seen.”
The Rocanville Lucky Lottery is a local tradition, supporting recreation organizations in town. Every year, the lottery board disperses funds to community groups, ensuring that everyone gets some financial assistance.
Last year, $55,000 was raised — an increase of around $20,000 from 2023 — and applications are still open for organizations to apply for Lucky Lottery funding until the end of March.
“We’ll start making decisions once we close that and there’s no lack of need, so I’m expecting some good applications,” Fowler said. “We try to spread it evenly and fairly. Everybody that applied got something last year, and I expect nothing different this year.”
There’s also some big prizes up for grabs as the 2024 edition of the Lucky Lottery featured a $100,000 grand prize, $41,880 in the 50/50 draw, plus several cash, travel voucher, and gift card prizes. The total prize value last year was $158,580 through 13 lucky winners.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good plan in place, and we’ve been growing,” Fowler said. “Our first year was still our biggest, and we are getting very close to that now, and I think this year we will eclipse that and really do a lot better.”
Once this year’s tickets are available, Fowler has one simple message.
“Everybody get their chequebooks out and start buying!”
