The Airdrie Knights of Columbus are continuing their Dream Vacation Lottery tradition for a fifth year now, offering 69 prizes throughout 2022 starting in April.
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For every month of the year, the Knights of Columbus draw names out of the 600 tickets that are sold annually, providing winners with $2,500 travel vouchers to take to a destination of their choosing.
2022 is offering an equivalent of $39,260 in 2022, and on top of 12 travel vouchers being offered, four monthly prizes of $120 each will be given out starting in April.
All proceeds generated by ticket sales are donated to local charities, and since its inception the Dream Vacation Lottery Draw has raised over $70,000 for places like the Food Bank, Airdrie POWER, Airdrie and District Hospice Society, Habitat for Humanity, and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, only to name a few.
Raffle chair Wayne MacGillivary said the Knights of Columbus hope to have another successful year of the Dream Vacation Draw.
“It benefits the local community and the charities that we support. The response over the first number of years has been very good, and it’s improving all the time,” said MacGillivary.
New to the draw this year is early bird prizes. One early bird draw already happened on December 19, but another is scheduled for February 14.
The early bird prizes include cash and grocery gift cards, totaling $3,500 in goods to be given away.
Travelling might not be at the top of mind for some people given circumstances around the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, so if they choose, winners can opt to take 80 per cent of their travel voucher instead, or $2,000 in cash.
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MacGillivary added that for those keen on travelling, there is no rush to use their prizes.
“It’s a little dicey for some people to actually book travel, but some people have. The beauty of that is that if they do book to travel, it doesn’t expire ever,” he said.
While early bird prizes are lined up for February, the Knights of Columbus are finishing up the 2021 draw leading up to April.
MacGillivary said that the pandemic hasn’t slowed momentum on the initiative.
“2021 was probably one of the best years for sales for us. We learned to improvise and find ways to generate more interest,” he said.
He said the goal for 2022 was to sell all 600 tickets.
“We’re definitely hoping to continue that trend. We sold about 485 tickets last year, but we’re hoping to go above that mark,” he said.
“That would generate about $35,000 in profits that we would in turn… give it away.”
Tickets for the draw are being sold for $120 each. Winning tickets are returned to the drum for all future draws as well.
Tickets can be bought online at airdriedreamvacation.ca or shoppers may find tickets available in-person at stores such as Save-On Foods, Co-op, and Home Depot.
