Why You Should Buy A Raffle Ticket At Local Sport

Friday nights at the pub or club usually entails two people circulating with that little bucket of coins and a fist full of tickets to sell for junior and senior sporting clubs. You see them making their way from table to table, and you know they’re heading your way, sparking the age old internal dilemma. Should you part with the schooner change in your pocket or buy the ticket? “Enough people have purchased a ticket already; my two bucks won’t matter... right?”

Finally, they approach with a big smile and that famous selling point of how much your contribution helps the cause. Before you say no, spare a thought to the reasons why they are giving up their Friday or Saturday night to raise money?

While little grants from the government come along from time to time to help sporting clubs, they are like Willy Wonka’s golden ticket, hard to come by and harder to get. That little bucket of coins can buy new and updated gear for the players whether it be footballs, bats, sticks or rackets. It can mean Cowra players can travel by bus to their away games, relieving the pressure on parents and helps cover the cost for coaches to be trained and certified. It goes toward paying for new seating, trophies, uniforms, hats, sunscreen, first aid equipment and officers, qualified referees and functioning appliances for the canteen to make sure the players have something warm to eat and drinks to consume when they come off the field.

Raffle money filters through every inch of a club, keeping it running and quite often is the reason they can keep their registration cost for players low, giving every child a chance to get out there and play. It can be the difference in clubs thriving and staying alive or folding and shutting up shop.

So, before you say ‘thanks but no thanks’ to the lovely volunteer standing in front of you with those tickets, just remember that the $2 hanging around in the depths of your pocket, could be the reason a Cowra sporting team is able to play and proudly represent our town on the weekends.

By Jamie-Lee Farley, Cowra Junior Rugby League Club.