The Reverse Raffle was a tremendous success after once again being plagued by procrastination in those who waited to purchase their tickets until the very last minute. Everything came together at the 11th hour and we had a great event making winners out of more than a few of you! Towards the end of the evening, I invited all five remaining ticket holders up to the stage to begin the real deal making. I offered an easy strategy by allowing the remaining five to split the $10,000.00 with each taking home $2,000.00. Consensus was required and not attained so we resumed the process of drawing numbers. After losing one more, the same offer was made to the final four for $2,500.00 each. Again there was no consensus so another left the stage. Now with three remaining and $3,333.33 on the line there was still hesitation so we kept drawing. Finally, we were left with two and they put their heads together and agreed to split the prize with each taking home $5,000.00. The two big winners were Billie Terry and Tom Baluk/Ron Veverka (shared ticket.) I would especially like to recognize Mr. Billie Terry. When Mr. Terry arrived to collect his winnings, he handed me a check for $2,500.00, thereby donating 50% of his winnings back to the church. Thanks for your generosity.
In an effort to sell all of the side board tickets prior to the beginning of the Reverse Raffle, I made numerous announcements that we must sell them all in order to begin the evening’s festivities. After my final plea, there were still 28 $10 tickets remaining. Lori Breyman came up to see me and asked how many were left. Being told there were 28, she pulled out her checkbook and wrote a check for $280.00. At the end of the night, Lori was the proud owner of ticket number 241 which was the ultimate winner. After her benevolence, Lori netted $1,220.00.
As previously mentioned, all proceeds from the Reverse Raffle will be used to reduce our Catholic Faith Appeal Goal. Thank you again to all of our parishioners who endured my begging and pleading for the last month in order to make this event a success. You really came through and I am very grateful. Due to an early deadline for the bulletin, we don’t yet have a detailed accounting of the net proceeds, however, I will include in next week’s bulletin.
As residual donations continue to trickle in, the total from our initial Capital Reserve collection is nearing $50,000.00. Thank you again to all of our parishioners who participated in this very important second collection.
I would like to recognize our parishioners for their cooperation in getting on board and fully utilizing our WeShare Giving/Event Management module on our website. You may make electronic contributions via credit card or bank draft. Also, you have the option of registering for and purchasing tickets for all of our parish events on our website. As you know, the implementation of a truly functional system has been a dream of mine for many years. As it turns out, my dream has now become a reality. Here are some examples of how our parishioners are utilizing WeShare. 180 guests registered for and purchased tickets for our St. Patrick’s Day Party totaling $4,500.00 in ticket sales. 47 tickets were sold for the reverse raffle through WeShare totaling $4,700.00. 250 parishioners registered for our Family Fun and Ministry Day through WeShare. $900 was donated to our Capital Reserve fund through WeShare. And finally, 118 guests have registered thus far through WeShare for the Men’s Club Easter Egg Hunt to be held on April 19. We now have the staff and tools in place to fully utilize technology for the benefit of the parish. WeShare is conveniently accessible from the front page of our website at www.saintjohntheevangelist.com by clicking on the “ways to give” tab.
Within the next two weeks, we will be making major upgrade to the current sound system. After this upgrade, we are confident that the sound will be better than ever. One of the enhancements of this upgrade will be the availability for Tom to control the sound from wherever he may be (piano, organ, pew.) Once we have implemented the upgrades I will address some of the new changes. The cost for this upgrade has been fully underwritten by a private donation.
In His work together,
Scott Schlossberg, MBA
General Manager