ROCANVILLE — This is the last week to get tickets for the Rocanville Lucky Lottery as the grand prize draw happens this Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Nutrien Rocanville Community Hall.
According to Lucky Lottery board chair Kirby Fowler, ticket sales are going well, leading up to the draw night where one lucky winner will go home with $100,000 in their pocket.
“We’re ahead of where we were last year and the year before time-wise coming into the final push, but we’ve still got tickets for sale,” he said. “If you’re waiting for your last chance, you’re pretty much there.”
One trend Fowler has noticed is that people will buy multiple tickets before the early bird draw (which happened on Aug. 28), and then purchase more closer to the grand prize draw. Regardless, organizers are hopeful for above-average sales this year.
“I am holding out hope, I’m very confident this year,” Fowler said. “We looked at the numbers this year compared to the last two years, and where we’re at, we’re further ahead, but there’s still a pile of tickets. There’s enough tickets to sell that there’s still that nervousness there as well.”
To elicit some buzz about Rocanville’s largest fundraiser, a series of videos featuring the volunteers involved with the Lucky Lottery has hit the group’s Facebook page, which seem to have been successful in drawing viewers.
“We’ve shot a whole bunch of videos on our Facebook page, we do see a lot of traction and action after we post them,” Fowler confirmed. “We’ve got a great bunch of volunteers that are willing to put the effort into making everybody giggle and laugh.”
The Rocanville Lucky Lottery distributes money to local recreation groups, keeping teams and clubs in Rocanville alive for future generations. Last year saw the group contribute $35,500 back to the community, and in 2022, $86,000 went to local recreation projects.
“It’s not going in somebody’s pocket, it’s going to help a group of kids do something—whether that’s baseball, or hockey, or swimming, or golf, or dance—it’s all going right back into the community and creating a memory for a kid, really, in the long run,” Fowler explained. “It just keeps our community the way everybody remembers it. When I was a kid—and you think what was in town and what you did as a kid—those memories are priceless, and we just want to give that same memory to every one of the kids that’s around or that would end up using these facilities.
“It’s not just the Rocanville people either or the Rocanville kids; there’s kids that come from out of town to play hockey in Rocanville, whether it’s Moosomin playing Rocanville, or Wapella playing Rocanville, Langenberg, whatever—those memories are all still built in that town,” Fowler continued. “Without those facilities and without that infrastructure, it just doesn’t happen.”
There’s been a concerted effort this year to entice support from areas that the lottery may not have reached previously. Over the last few months, an advertising campaign was aimed at people in southwest Saskatchewan.
“We are actually doing a fair bit of data tracking this year of where tickets are coming from and that southwest corner of the province is still mostly untapped for us,” Fowler said. “We’ve got some sales down there, but really, we could definitely use more promotion down in that corner. That’s what we’re trying to figure out, how to reach those people, just so they know that there’s an opportunity here.”
In general, Fowler says there seems to be a line from the southeast region to Lloydminster where everything north is saturated with ticket sales, while everything south of the line could use some more sales.
Big prizes to be won
On Saturday night the grand prize draw takes place at 9 pm at the hall. There’s the big $100,000 prize, plus a $5,000 travel voucher, four $1,000 cash prizes, five $500 cash prizes, and a 50/50 draw that is climbing steadily by the minute.
Last year saw the take-home portion of the 50/50 draw reach $40,000, and Fowler is sure “we’ll eclipse that this year.”
“I can’t imagine meeting somebody that couldn’t use $40,000,” he said.
Tickets can be found online at , from any board member, and participating local businesses.
