By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
The winners of the Colonel Crawford Athletic Boosters’ Corvette Raffle didn’t have to travel too far for their prize, a 1957 red and white convertible Corvette. In fact the ‘Vette won’t be leaving the county.
Marcia and Ron Burkhart’s names are no stranger when it comes to donating their time and money to various community causes, however with a purchase of a raffle ticket to support the Colonel Crawford Athletic Boosters they found themselves on the winning end. Ron recounted what happened when his name was drawn for the car.
“When my son called me I said April Fool’s and I hung up on him. Travis called then I said, ‘Hey enough April Fools.’ And he said it was for real,” Burkhart said.
In accepting the Corvette, Burkhart gave praise to the Athletic Boosters.
“These boosters they do a tremendous job, they should receive all the praise and glory for the work that they do,” Burkhart said. “It is kind of a tough decision. I have been humbled by the community in receiving this, but I will accept it, and I can promise that the Athletic Boosters won’t go unnoticed down the line. That is part of it too, we enjoy working with the local boosters here.”
Burkhart plans to repay the boosters back down the line.
“Had a tough time deciding to receive it, but glad to accept it, and enjoy it for a bit, and perhaps the proceeds will eventually come back to the boosters. That is the game plan,” Burkhart said. “It is staying in the community and I realize that is a good thing, and hopefully this helps locals to get out and promote this raffle, and the reverse raffle in general and support their boosters.”
One of the organizers for the raffle, Mark Teynor, reflected on the winners of the raffle coming from in-county.
“That was fantastic. You can watch the video of it on Facebook. I got a little out of control excited. It was really great,” Teynor said.
Teynor described what led up to the drawing of the Burkhart’s ticket.
“The fact that they left 10 minutes before. We had interaction all night long. First, they donated a lot of door prizes to the event, well they won their own door prize with their number, and I won and hors d’oeuvres from the Outback. I went back and got their prize and my prize, and I went over there and I said ‘You won this prize from Burkhart Farm Center, and I won this, so here you get this prize, and I get this.” So I took what they had originally won,” Teynor said. “That was our first interaction, and every year they always come back and say a lot of nice things and thank me for all I do, and we shook hands and they went out the door.”
“About 10-15 minutes later Lindy Rachel’s mother went to pull the winning name out, and I was like, ‘Come on Peggy you have to pull someone out local,’” Teynor continued. “Just as soon as we get the blindfold on her I said, ‘A little to the left, a little to the right,’ just messing around. But her hand wasn’t in there. She got her hand in there and she had 20 or 30 tickets in her hand and just kind of dropped the tickets, and you could see all of the names dropping out until she had the winning ticket in her hand.”
All the profits from the raffles allow the boosters to take on ambitious projects like the school’s all-weather track, fieldhouse and weight room, bleachers at the football field, football scoreboard, pool improvements, track equipment and new fencing for the softball field. This year a good chunk of the profits went towards the new building at the softball diamond that houses the concession stand, restrooms, and storage.
While the Corvette from this year’s raffle is heading to a new home, the next raffle and Corvette are already set with the drawing taking place on April 21, 2018. The Corvette being raffled off will be a 1967 Corvette.