Senior lucks out with local fundraiser

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This article was published 13/05/2023 (1218 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon senior was worried and expected bad news when his son called him around lunchtime earlier this week, but it turned out to be the exact opposite, says the 93-year-old who is now hundreds of thousands of dollars richer.

For the past few months, Doug Gourlay has been buying tickets in a fundraiser for Brandon’s Seniors for Seniors Co-op, called Smack the Jack sweepstakes.

It’s a game of chance with 54 numbered envelopes that have cards from a full deck including all 52 playing cards and two jokers. The buyer chooses the envelope they think contains the jack of spades.

The draw is made once a week, and if an envelope chosen has the jack of spades, that person takes home the grand prize. If not, then more tickets are sold for the following week’s draw until the envelope with the jack of spades is selected.

Gourlay started buying tickets around six months ago, when his seniors residence displayed them in the lobby. He had tried his luck at lotteries before, but the local fundraiser caught his eye.

“When I saw this Smack the Jack, I thought that it sounded like a lot better odds than I’ve been used to,” said Gourlay. “And it’s a local charity that runs it, so the money was going to a good place whether I won or lost.”

He lost at first, but kept buying tickets for himself, his wife and their kids who are grown and have children of their own. But on Wednesday, it paid off.

The draw was made live on Westman Communications’ access channel while Gourlay and his wife, Audrey, were having lunch, so they weren’t watching. But their son was.

“I was kind of worried why he would be phoning me around noon, but he said, ‘I got good news, not only did they pull your name for Smack the Jack, but you got the jack for $192,540.’ I couldn’t believe it, I was stunned, and it didn’t register for a while,” Gourlay said as he laughed.

Gourlay’s win “caused a buzz” among the Friday lunch crowd at Seniors for Seniors, said member Marilyn Duval, who heard that Gourlay will be donating some of his winnings back to the organization.

She’s happy that he won, but a part of her was wishing she would have been the one to “smack the jack.”

“I always said to myself that I was buying tickets to support Seniors for Seniors, but deep down it would have been so fun to win. But I did also tell myself, it’s OK to spend 20 bucks every week,” Duval said, chuckling.

The sweepstakes was an idea that came from Don Kostesky, the board president of Seniors for Seniors, who said it’s a spin on another popular fundraiser called Chase the Ace with many of the same ground rules.

There was skepticism among members, and it was “pretty iffy” whether it would work, he added. Ticket sales were slow to start, but when the first jackpot of almost $10,000 was handed out last October, and weekly consolation prizes were awarded with up to $8,000 in cash, word started to spread.

“That’s when it started to take off and boy, in the last few months, it was just unbelievable, the response was just phenomenal. We were selling out. In a matter of a day, day and a half, we were sold out of tickets,” Kostesky said.

The entire fundraiser was powered by seniors who volunteered their time to sort and sell the tickets, and then take and count the money, said Margaret Chastko.

“It’s working your brain,” said Chastko. “When you get into your 80s, you have to keep your brain sharp and make sure it works all the time,” she said. “But it was great fun, and we can’t believe all the money that was raised for our organization.”

It is the largest fundraiser that Rob Lavin, executive director of Seniors for Seniors, has ever been involved in.

“I’ve never seen a fundraiser raise this much money in such a short period of time,” Lavin said, “Ticket sales were probably in the range of about $400,000, and 25 per cent of that will remain with us.”

The board has already earmarked where the funding will go, said Lavin. He has applied for a special improvement grant, and if approved, the funds raised will go toward paving their parking lot.

“It’s not that we don’t have lots of attendance, we do, but we understand that our gravel parking lot can be a hinderance, and there are probably some people who don’t come here because of mobility issues. A paved parking lot will help with mobility for sure,” said Lavin.

Planning is already underway for the next Smack the Jack fundraiser, expected to roll out in the fall.

But before then, more funds may be coming to Seniors for Seniors courtesy of Gourlay, who said he’s also going to donate to the Brandon Regional Hospital Foundation and gift some of his winnings to his two sons, daughter as well as his 21 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“Winning money is nice to be able to give it to somebody who needs it.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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