Shopping spree raffle raises $1,700 for church conference

January of this year found the Ritzville Nazarene Youth Group facing how to fund a project to send some of their group to a Nazarene Youth Conference (NYC) in Phoenix in July.

They advertised a raffle for a shopping spree at Harvest Foods. Tickets were $10 each, and the winner of the raffle would receive a one-person, two-cart, ten-minute shopping spree at the Harvest Foods grocery store. The March 2 drawing pulled the ticket that was purchased by Elizabeth Scoles from a member of the youth group who came to sell tickets at her work at US Bank. The raffle raised in excess of $1,700.

Funds from the raffle are to be used to send group members to the conference, although ten percent of raffle ticket sales is earmarked for the Ritzville Food Pantry. Meanwhile, organizers and Harvest Foods agreed that the Ritzville group would pay for groceries up to $1,000, and the store would pick up the cost of any excess.

Elizabeth Scoles arrived at Harvest Foods on March 22 to meet the organizers of the event and take her 10-minute raffle prize. After introductions, warm-up advice from everyone present and a plan, she began her two-cart run through the store at exactly 7:44 a.m.

Although encouraged to load up heavily on meat products, Ms. Scoles – a single mom of two young children – opted to focus on canned goods and family-oriented groceries for her family. When asked, she said she was going to use her winnings for “big family dinners and breakfasts.”

The total ticket for the 10-minute shopping spree came to $663.31. In addition to the bill for groceries, $180 went to the local Food Pantry. The remainder will be used to send three high school delegates to the NYC: Grace Saint John, Johanna (JoJo) Ewing and Annika Ewing. Two parents will chaperone the kids: Carol Ewing and Tina Saint John.