THUNDER BAY – Last year’s Fort William Rotary House Lottery draw was interrupted by COVID-19, delayed three months, transitioned to online and mail-in sales only, and still sold out.
With little more certainty this time around, organizers are back at it again, offering up a 1,700 square foot, custom-built, five-bedroom, three-bathroom, bi-level home worth more than $642,000.
The house, built by Lormar Construction, is located on Bishop Court, around the corner from Woodcrest Public School, and features a finished basement, five appliances, an upgraded trim package, mirage hardwood flooring on the upper level, a central vacuum system and a deck to bring the backyard to life.
Cynthia Judge, president of the Fort William Rotary Club, says she’s simply excited to be back in business this year, though for now ticket-buyers will have to settle for a virtual tour of black-brick-faced home for the foreseeable future.
“I’m really excited for the 35th Lottery House. We’re really pleased to do this launch so people can have a virtual tour of the house. They can’t come inside, but (at least) they can see what it looks like,” Judge said on Tuesday, officially launching this year’s ticket sales.
Proceeds raised from the draw are doled out to a variety of local charities, including the George Jeffery Children’s Centre Foundation, the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation, the Boys and Girls Club of Thunder Bay and Wilderness Discovery.
“We’re looking forward to the support of the community again because they always come through for us to help with our charities. They’ve said they really need our help and we have a really great group of charities,” Judge said.
Dave Knutson, chair of the Fort William House Lottery committee, said coming on the heels of 2020, when open houses had to be stopped and the draw pushed back from its traditional July 1 date on centre stage at Marina Park, this year should be a breeze.
“Because of last year’s experience, we actually kept the extended length of the lottery, so we’re going right through to Oct. 11 this year for the grand-prize draw. We actually applied for an electronic licence, which means essentially we’re selling online this year,” Knutson said.
“There’s the option of mailing in too. It’s really a major change for us. This is the 35th event. We’ve had 34 years that the majority of the years were person-to-person sales and there would be open houses, which obviously with the COVID situation, we can’t have.”
Knutson said he is hopeful they will be able to hold open houses in the late summer or early fall, but it’s unlikely the method of ticket sales will change.
He added they’ve already sold about 2,500 of the 16,000 tickets up for grabs, which are 2,000 more than last year’s sold-out draw.
Knutson said they added more tickets to add more early-bird prize draws, including 15 $1,000 draws and nine $5,000 draws. The extra tickets will also help make up for increased costs, including higher building material expenses and the move to online sales.
Tickets are available at www.fwrotaryhouselottery.ca, and are one for $100 and three for $250.
