Wednesday, October 12, 2011

A Funny Thing Happened this Summer...

In early spring, I joined the board of the Boys & Girls Club of Frederick County. Not only is it a great organization doing a heck of a lot for teens/tweens here in Frederick County, but it seemed like an interesting job to take on.

One of the things I didn't know about being on a board is the tremendous amount of fundraising involved. It seems like it is non-stop. This summer, the members of the board were tasked with selling raffle tickets for The Ultimate Dine Out - a contest where the winner would take home $100 gift cards from 35 different restaurants in Frederick County. If you're good at math, you can quickly see that adds up to $3,500 in gift cards.

Being the person that I am, and absolutely hating fund-raising, I bailed on my chore of selling raffle tickets and decided to buy the lot myself. It was a hefty investment, but I purchased 30 tickets for $250 (tickets were $10 ea., or 3 for $25). I felt it would be well worth the money in order to save myself the hassle (and hey-it was going to the Boys & Girls Club FC).

Cut to a Frederick Keys game in very late August. I've just arrived home from picking up AVB from a road trip with grandma, then settled in to check out Facebook. One of the perks of buying a raffle ticket was also a free ticket to the Keys game on that specific night. I gave a bunch of the tickets away, hoping that others would go forth and have some local baseball fun.

Imagine my surprise, no, really, more like shock, when a message from one of the gals I gave tickets to popped up and read something along the lines of "We're having a great time and the game. How great that you won the big prize!"

Say what?

And so we went, back and forth and back and forth until I was certain, absolutely positive that the prize, all $3500, was mine.

Woo-freakin'-hoo!!

So yup, I won 35 - $100 gift cards. One card/certificate from each of the following:
  • Acacia*
  • Beef O' Brady's
  • Black Hog
  • Bonefish Grill*
  • Brewer's Alley*
  • Callahan's
  • Canal Bar & Grill
  • Capital Crave
  • Carriage House Inn*
  • China Garden*
  • Clay Oven
  • The Cracked Claw*
  • Danielle's*
  • Dutch's Daughter*
  • Dutch's at Silver Tree
  • Famous Dave's
  • Glory Days
  • Green Turtle*
  • Griff's
  • Home at Braddock
  • Il Porto
  • Isabella's*
  • La Paz
  • Magoo's
  • May's
  • Mick's
  • Monocacy Crossing
  • Morgan's American Grill*
  • Olives*
  • Pizza Blitz
  • Red Horse
  • The Shamrock
  • Pizzeria Uno*
  • Viet Gourmet
  • Volt
*We've already used it or have given it away.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT I WON THIS???

We've used/given away a little less than half so far, which has been really, really fun, and I'm looking forward to using the rest to treat family & friends throughout the fall.

My question is this: Do you think you'll buy a raffle ticket from me next year?

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