Photos by Christina Denys story by Ray Conner
The annual reverse raffle for Kern Valley High School sports took place on Saturday at the Senior Center. A large group of supporters had their chance to make some big bucks.
The Bronc Booster Club held one of its biggest fund-raisers to give aid to the sports teams at Kern Valley. The monies raised on this night go to help the club buy uniforms and other safety equipment the teams might need.
There was also a change coming as the Bronc Booster Club said goodbye to Janet Lubin as outgoing president and hello to Lisa Wyly as the new president. Lubin was asked, how many years? Biggest accomplishment and what did she want to pass on to the next group? She replied, “Five years. Being there for my kids and all of their friends. Not as hard as it seems, learn to delegate.”
Incoming president was asked, Why and What did she as the future of the Broncs Booster Club? Her responses were, “Want to be part of the school teams and support athletics anyway I can. Growth, membership, more families involved, and more parents stepping up and supporting all the teams.”
From the dinner, provided by Jim Wyly to the adult beverage area provided by the Mt. Mesa Men’s Club, the group settled in for the night of fun and the possibility of winning one of the 17 cash prizes that ranged from $250 to the grand prize of $5,000. Along the way there were 97 door prizes offered out. There were only 86 tickets deemed “next year” worthy that would not win a prize of some kind. During dinner and awaiting the drawing, the voices of those in attendance were anticipating the hope of being one of the lucky tickets left in the barrel at the end of the night.
The Bronc Boosters sold 199 tickets for a donation that put them in the drawing. The 200th ticket was raffled off for a donation of those that were interested. These tickets were bottled up and put in a drum and selected one at a time. The reverse raffle works the opposite way of the usual raffle drawings. Usually, participants only have one chance to win the top prize. On this night you were hoping to be the last one in the drum.
The night drifted from talk of the silent auction (10 items) to the live auction that saw 22 items bid on to keep as keepsakes. These items ranged from signed athletic balls from the respective teams, to the gift baskets, to other donated items that you could bid on to take home.
The night progressed until the live and silent auctions were done. There were still 125 tickets left in the drum and it was time to get down to business. There were a few hiccups on the night, but all in all things ran smooth. The latch on the drum slipped open a couple of times spilling out bottled up tickets that were quickly rescued and put back in the drum.
The tickets on the big board were coming off at a quick clip and the anticipation was running high. Eagerly awaiting the caller’s next name on the ticket was greeted with a heavy sigh of defeat, or the swooshing of a breath noting they still had a chance to win.
The big board was down to the final few and those still having a chance were waiting with bated breath. Then the moment of truth. Three bottles remained and the next ticket drawn would be labeled ‘198’. So close yet so far away from winning.
With just two bottles in the drum the ones in charge opened them to see if it was going to be a split or would it go down to only one winner. All the tickets sold are printed with a simple message: Do you want to split? Circle yes or no. If both tickets said yes, they would have divvied up the $5,000. On this night, one said yes and one said no so they were placed back in the drum given a few twirls and one ticket was drawn leaving the winner in. The grand prize winner on the night was Shellie Tito.
This put an end to the fund-raiser and the successful night of helping out the athletic teams at Kern Valley High School.
