THUNDER BAY – The second Thunder Bay 50/50 draw has soared past $500,000, with less than 48 hours to go before ticket sales wrap up.
Heather Vita, director of marketing and communications with the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation, on Wednesday said the amount of money raised over the past four weeks is phenomenal, especially considering the contest period was about two weeks shorter than the initial draw.
“We’re just very happy to see the success of the second draw. It’s already over half-a-million dollars, which is incredible for our community,” Vita said.
Net proceeds from the raffle, which will be drawn for on Friday morning, will be used to purchase equipment at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
With more than $1.4 million raised in the past 10 weeks, the hospital foundation’s coffers are in much better shape than they were, given the issues surrounding more traditional fundraising efforts over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I can’t emphasize enough what this means for our fundraising. We can’t have any in-person events, the kids are not at school, our lives have changed drastically and without the revenue from a lot of events we typically have, we just lost that,” Vita said.
“This is bringing in extremely important revenue for us, which goes directly back to the hospital, providing beds, ultrasounds, x-rays, you name it.”
It’s also helped the foundation expand its donor base.
A lot of people who might not necessarily donate regularly to the hospital have gotten behind the 50/50 draw.
“We definitely have a lot of new people who have been supporting the draw, who have not previously maybe made a donation to the hospital,” Vita said. “We’re very thankful for their support of this draw because all of the money goes back to the hospital.
“We do rely on the generosity of the community to make donations. They’re really important. They help our hospital continue to supply the excellent care that we have. And we’ve seen in the past year how important it is to have care, right here at home.”
The take-home jackpot currently stands at more than $515,500.
Tickets, which can be purchased online only, at www.thunderbay5050.ca, are $10 for five numbers, $20 for 30 numbers and $50 for 150 numbers. Ticket sales close at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday night.
Ticket buyers must be in Ontario at the time of purchase.
