And the winner is…
Jim Kole of Prince George was announced as being the winner of the Prince George Hospice Society’s Dream Home Lottery during last night’s (Friday) draw.
“Are you kidding me?”
Donna Flood, Executive Director of PG Hospice, ensured Kole during the phone call to inform that he was indeed the winner.
“You’re not kidding me, are you?”
It’s not every day that you win a 3,800 square foot home valued at $640,000, so Kole’s shock can certainly be understood by many.
Earlier this week, there were about 2,000 tickets remaining to be sold. The night prior to the big announcement, they were all sold, marking another year for the Hospice Society with a sell-out and allowing them to continue in caring for those utilizing their services.
Donna Flood, Executive Director of Hospice, said selling out of tickets is crucial to the society.
“If we don’t sell out, it would mean how do we go out to the community and ask for money… because if not Prince George, there’s no one.”
“With the sell-out, that means the money that I’ve identified as I need to do the work that we do, we’re able to do that,” Flood told MyPGNow. “The money goes into the care of the people we serve. Even when we were back at 900 tickets, we’re putting into how many days of care that equates to; that’s about 220 hours of care. Every dollar of this lottery actually goes into care of people at Hospice House.”
With the announcement on Friday, it brings an end to a tiresome schedule for all of those involved in the Dream Home Lottery.
“It’s an incredible amount of work. It starts from the moment that we select our contractor and start digging the hole for the foundation. We have to work very collaboratively with the contractor, the sub-contractor, all of the sponsors that we have — it really is no rest with the lottery, we just have different segments,” said Flood.
She adds that once the house was built, they then have to go through all of the regulations with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation.
“They’re very precise with what they need us to do. From designing the ticket, hiring the staff to help us, we have to know at every moment where every ticket is, so having all of those followed and tracked is huge.”
From there, Flood said it’s keeping their marketing and media partners up to date as the lottery goes on, right up until the very end when Hospice is pleading to the community to support them by purchasing a ticket.
“The overwhelming part about it is every time they do,” said Flood