St. Mary School Raffle •

The St. Mary School Diner/Raffle takes place each March • The St. Mary School Raffle makes around $115,000. The majority of profit from the raffle comes from ticket sales. Another area of profit comes from Silent/Live Auction items. The St. Mary School Raffle has generated over 2 million fundraising dollars over the past twenty years. • The St. Mary School Raffle proceeds go directly into the St. Mary School operating budget for the following year. • Roy Schmidt (Ford Square/King City Chrysler/Schmidt Chevy) is ultimately in charge of the school raffle. Roy organizes the weekly print and radio advertising for the event. Roy also organizes and leads the weekly team captain meeting at noon each Wednesday during the 9-10 weeks of selling raffle tickets. The Raffle Kick-off for 2023 was January 4. The first early bird $200 drawing for the raffle was Wednesday, January 11. Each week on Wednesday a $100 early bird raffle drawing is held at the noon meeting at Ford Square. The last early bird drawing will take place Wednesday, March 15. Roy Schmidt tracks each team’s sales at the weekly raffle meeting and compares the results to the past 5 years of data. Roy Schmidt’s secretary, Tonya, logs every ticket sold into a spreadsheet. Each sold raffle ticket is then placed into a hopper which is stored in a secure location at Ford Square until the raffle drawing evening. • Emily Harrison is in charge of the Silent/Live Auction items. Mrs. Harrison works with area stores to find “deals” that we can in turn raffle off to make a small profit on March 18. In addition, parents donate items for the raffle. Mr. Heinzman writes a donation letter for taxes on donations when asked. 2 week before the raffle Mrs. Harrison and school volunteers will organize the basket raffle items in the connector between the church and gym. Parents and guests may preview these items and purchase raffle tickets advance of the raffle and put in their choice of basket. Mrs. Harrison finalizes and organizes all silent, live, and teacher auction the evening before and Saturday morning of the school raffle. Roy’s secretary, Tonya, volunteers the night of the event to work as the cashier to take the money for sold raffle items and keep a record of each transaction. Last year the silent/live auctions made a profit of $19,000, which is part of the overall $110,000 net profit the raffle generates.