I Always Make Sure I Buy a Raffle Ticket by Abbey Sowacke
I Always Make Sure I Buy a Raffle Ticket by Abbey Sowacke
I am involved in my school’s broadcasting program and every year we host the lip sync contest. Groups of students perform their favorite songs and get to feel like they're celebrities for a night. The contest sells out every year and is a fun event that brings the whole school together.
The money generated by the contest goes to the broadcasting program for new equipment so we can keep up with new techniques used today in the industry. We recently underwent a $3 million renovation to our studio and it now rivals college and professional studios across the country. When the renovations were finished, the administrators at my school were more than willing to provide us with what was needed for a high-end production, but they have slowly started to give us less and less.
It's now up to us to raise money to get new equipment, more software, computers and whatever else you can think of that would be needed to produce a TV show everyday and run one of the highest powered high school radio stations in the country. Our local sponsors do help out a lot but we really rely on the lip sync contest for extra income mid-year.
You can probably guess what I am going to say next: at the contest we have a raffle. On the way into the auditorium students and parents can buy raffle tickets for $1.00 each. We run it the same way you would any raffle and the winner is announced before the show starts, the prize is the opportunity for the winner to be a guest judge for the contest and have a front row seat. We also have raffles for random prizes donated by our sponsors that we give out in between acts. People usually buy two or three raffle tickets and the auditorium that the contest is held in has about 700 seats.
With those estimated numbers we receive about $2,100 from the raffle alone. Making that amount of money off of a cheap roll of raffle tickets really benefits us. We usually use that money to get equipment fixed, but last year we bought a drone! We were able to be a lot more creative this year given the resources for different angles, height and perspective with the drone. Creativity is the goal of the broadcasting program and the money we raise is a huge help. Something as small as a raffle at one event really benefits the program that I, and so many others love.
When raffle tickets are being sold people’s first thought is “I won’t win” but you have to think past that. Think of the group of people and the cause behind the raffle who will benefit from a $1 loss. After I noticed how fast the smallest contributions could add up, I always make sure I buy a raffle ticket if they are being sold where I am.
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Contributed by Abbey Sowacke
December 21, 2015