Bailey’s Rotary Club ends its Mustang raffle after 38 years
The Rotary Club of Bailey’s Crossroads has been raffling off a classic Ford Mustang for the past 38 years to raise money for the club’s community service activities.
This year, the Mustangs have gotten too expensive, so the Rotary Club is hosting a sweepstakes for vacations instead.
“Pre-Covid, we could get a classic Mustang for $20,000 and put in another $5,000 to $10,000 to restore it,” said Curtis Anderson, president-elect and fundraising chair of the Bailey’s Crossroads Rotary Club. “Now, they’re running about $40,000, without a chance to look at them, so we don’t know if they need repairs.”
At the same time, the club has been losing members, as some Rotarians have transferred to the Annandale or Falls Church Rotary clubs.
Related story: Mustang raffle supports Bailey’s Crossroads Rotary Club projects
As a result, the Bailey’s Rotary Club has fewer people available to bring a Mustang to weekend events, such as car shows and community festivals, to sell raffle tickets, Anderson said. “It became a manpower issue, so we looked at alternatives.”
So, with the end of the Mustang raffle, the club is selling tickets for a travel sweepstakes. The winner can choose among the following three trips:
- Zulu Nyala Safari Package, includes two guests for six nights at a safari lodge and game drives in South Africa (retail value $7,995).
- Explore Music and Castles in Portugal, includes four guests for five nights in Lisbon, tours, and traditional concerts and food (retail value up to $6,200).
- Santa Fe Cooking, Art, and Culture, includes two guests for four nights at a spa, lessons at a cooking school, and a tour in New Mexico (retail value ($5,400).
Air fare isn’t included. The trips are organized by Philantopia.
Enter the sweepstakes here. The deadline to buy tickets is midnight on Dec. 12. The drawing will be on Dec. 19.
For a $10 donation, you get six entries. For $25, you get 18. The bigger the donation, the more entries, going all the way up to 1,750 raffle tickets for $1,000. There will be special promotions throughout the ticket sales process.
You don’t have to contribute at all to enter and potentially win the sweepstakes, Anderson said. State law requires sweepstakes to allow people to enter for free.
“Most people buy tickets because they want to help the club,” he said. “We are giving people the option to give a tax-deductible donation to our organization.”
Related story: Volunteers put together school bags at the Rotary Club’s Great Assembly
One hundred percent of the revenue raised through the sweepstakes will be used by the Rotary Club to help the Bailey’s Crossroads community and for the club’s international projects.
Local projects include housing assistance for the homeless, assistance for teens aging out of the foster system, holiday toys and gift cards, personal hygiene products for Justice High School students, and snow-day meals for students in the Justice pyramid.
The Bailey’s Rotary Club’s global projects, carried out in conjunction with its African partners, include a facility in the nation of Eswatini to provide healthcare and education to children with disabilities and a maternal health clinic in Kenya.