Mooroopna Rotary Club’s 40th car raffle has raised a record $59,000 across the state, after significant changes to the fundraiser.
The raffle is normally held at the Mooroopna New Year’s Eve festival, which was cancelled due to the pandemic.
But the tenacious Rotarians were not deterred and continued to fundraise until the raffle was drawn on April 22 at the Stuart Davidson Memorial Golf Day.
City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Kim O’Keeffe was present to draw the winners.
First prize went to Marian Segrave, winning the keys to the Hyundai Venue Active 2022 valued at about $25,000.
Second prize went to Anna Hall, who won a $1000 Coles gift voucher.
The prizes were presented to the winners at the Hyundai dealership on Benalla Rd, Shepparton, on Wednesday.
The raffle tickets this year increased in price from $2 to $5, increasing the amount of funding that Mooroopna Rotary could distribute to local charities such as Hospice and FoodShare.
“The changes we’ve made have had a fabulous result ... we ourselves have raised more money,” Rotary raffle organiser Richard Speedy said.
“And we’ve really created a great amount of money for the community generally.’’
Another big change to the raffle was the increase in the number of clubs involved in on-selling tickets, including Lions and Kiwanis alongside other Rotary clubs.
“Instead of making it available to just local clubs, we’ve gone searching to clubs in Melbourne and clubs along the river,” Mr Speedy said.
“So we’ve got clubs from Cobram and Yarrawonga, Albury-Wodonga and Ivanhoe and Sunshine and Eltham, all selling the tickets for us.
“We’ve raised $32,000 for the Mooroopna Rotary Club to distribute.
“And we raised $27,000 for other clubs to distribute.
“In the past the combined effect was in the order of about $36,000 going into the community, spread across Victoria.
“Whereas now, it’s actually up to $59,000 going into the Victorian community.
“So it’s this really big jump in how much money this car raffle is raising for the communities in Victoria.”
Mr Speedy said the Mooroopna Rotary Club was hopeful it would be able to hold the next charity car raffle at the New Year’s Eve festival this year.