spacer
SSI
Search NNSL

  CLASSIFIEDSADVERTISINGSPECIAL ISSUESONLINE SPORTSOBITUARIESNORTHERN JOBSTENDERS

NNSL Photo/Graphic


Subscriber pages

buttonspacer News Desk
buttonspacer Columnists
buttonspacer Editorial
buttonspacer Readers comment
buttonspacer Tenders


Court News and Legal Links
http://www.linkcounter.com/go.php?linkid=347767
Home page text size buttonsbigger textsmall textText size
Fundraisers share wealth
Rec Centre project to get $20,000 weekly from Chase the Ace

Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, October 24, 2016

HAY RIVER
The Chase the Ace in Hay River continues to roll along. The Oct. 21 jackpot of $324,745 was not won.

Jesse McCordic of Hay River held the ticket giving him the right to draw in search of the ace of spades, but he drew the three of diamonds.

However, McCordic did win the weekly prize of $37,254 just for having his ticket drawn.

The weekly prize and the progressive jackpot when added together created a total potential prize of $361,999 on Oct. 21.

Ticket sales totalled $186,270.

On Oct. 28, there will be 11 cards left in the deck.

The Hay River Curling Club is sharing some of its good fortune from Chase the Ace - the weekly lottery that literally keeps pulling in buckets of money.

The club's executive decided that, beginning with the Oct. 14 draw, it would make a weekly donation to the town to help rebuild the Don Stewart Recreation Centre.

"So we are glad to announce that for this draw and every subsequent draw until the ace goes we are going to be donating $20,000 per week to the new rec centre," said Glenn Smith, chair of the curling club's fundraising committee and the driving force behind the town's first Chase the Ace, just before making the Oct. 14 draw at the Ptarmigan Inn.

The announcement was greeted with applause from the crowded Doghouse Sports Bar, where a draw is made each Friday evening.

Smith told News/North the rec centre is a great project that will benefit everyone in the community.

"And obviously that's a building that we lease space from and had close ties to," he said. "And we've done quite well with Chase the Ace to date."

Smith also said the curling club executive understands that without a rec centre there is no curling club.

Mayor Brad Mapes welcomed the donation, saying that for the curling club to put money back into the recreation centre project is a great thing.

"For them to be coming forward until the draw is done to give $20,000 on each draw is an amazing gift to our community for the recreation centre," he said.

Time will tell how much the donation will eventually total.

Mapes said it could mean a large sum of money for the rec centre project.

Mapes said the donation will help pay down the debenture for the project, once it is taken out probably next month.

Smith said that, as of the Oct. 14 draw, the curling club has made more than $400,000 in profits from Chase the Ace.

That is far more than the curling club expected when it brought Chase the Ace to Hay River in January.

Smith said the curling club is also conscious of the community in the process, and has involved a number of businesses in ticket sales - the Ptarmigan Inn, Riverview Cineplex, The Back Eddy restaurant and the Royal Canadian Legion.

That has helped those businesses get people in through their doors on Friday nights and improved their own sales.

A group will also be hired each week to help prepare the 24,000 to 25,000 tickets - basically tearing rolls into $20 strips of four tickets to make the sales run more smoothly.

"It's a fair amount of labour required there," Smith said. "So we're now getting other community groups and non-profit groups involved with that. We're offering them $500 per week."

So far, the travel group at Diamond Jenness Secondary School has prepared tickets to raise some money.

Smith also said Chase the Ace brings many people into Hay River each Friday from places like Fort Resolution, Fort Smith and even High Level, Alta., and they are spending money at various businesses while they are here.

Each Friday night, people can buy $5 tickets for the Chase the Ace draw.

The holder of the winning ticket automatically gets a weekly prize and a chance to draw from a deck of cards - placed in a black box - in search of the ace of spades. The person who eventually draws the ace of spades will win a progressive jackpot.

The total raised each week is divided as follows: 50 per cent to the organization staging the Chase the Ace, 30 per cent to the progressive jackpot and 20 per cent to the weekly prize.

E-mailWe welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.