HARRIERS HOUSE DRAW NEXT MONTH
A FAYTHE HARRIERS fundraising raffle for a house worth €400,000, which has been twice postponed, is now going ahead on June 8 in Wexford Park, with a last minute push on ticket sales taking place in the days leading up to the draw.
The raffle for Number 1, Carton Wood in Maynooth was launched last June and was due to be drawn on New Year’s Eve in the County Hall but was deferred in order to sell more tickets at €100 each, after similar draws around the country affected the Wexford fundraising campaign.
The deferred March date was again postponed due to Covid-19, according to the club secretary Pat Hennebry who said he was aware of some criticism online about the postponements, mostly from outside Wexford.
Mr. Hennebry said there will be no further postponements and the draw will take place in Chadwicks Wexford Park on June 8, following approval from the GAA.
Due to coronavirus restrictions, members of the public will not be able to attend, as originally intended, but the draw will be livestreamed on social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram and will also be covered by South East Radio.
‘While this would have been our preferred format, it is now apparent that it may be many months before we would be in a position to convene such an event,’ he said. The draw will be attended by the bare minimum of personnel necessary to conduct and oversee the event with strict Covid-19 restrictions in force.
It will be overseen by a representative of Sheil Kinnear Ltd Accountants. The winning number will be announced live on air, with the winner’s name being revealed as soon as possible, after the lucky person is notified. The exact time of the draw will be announced later.
The house is now in the ownership of the Faythe Harriers, having been purchased by the club at Christmas at a cost of €400,000 from the proceeds of the raffle, and the deeds have been registered in the name of the club.
The organising committee set a maximum target of 12,000 ticket sales, which, if achieved, would have given an approximate net profit of €800,000 after the house and marketing costs etc were paid for.
That ticket target has so far fallen short, although a surge in interest is expected in the final days before the draw, as has been the experience with other draws.
The raffle was devised as a ‘golden ticket’ fundraising opportunity for the club to complete the building of a new clubhouse and community centre at Páirc Charman and was heavily promoted following its launch, with high-profile members Lee Chin and Larry O’ Gorman lending their faces to the campaign. Anthony Neville, the developer behind Carton Wood, is a member of the Faythe Harriers.
Tickets were sold throughout Wexford as well as nationally and internationally but the target number wasn’t helped by competition from similar raffles by other GAA organisations which brought forward their dates prior to the original date set by the Faythe Harriers, according to Mr. Hennebry.
‘If we had gone ahead with the draw at Christmas, we wouldn’t have made enough money to make it worthwhile, so we decided to move it forward. You can’t go back to the community and say you are holding another fundraiser.’
The raffle was due to take place in March but then Covid-19 struck, putting GAA clubs out of action and cancelling plans for ticket promotions in shopping centres etc.
Recently, the Faythe Harriers took the decision to push ahead and hold the draw. ‘We decided we have to do this now because come September or October, we could be facing into a very different landscape,’ said the secretary.
‘It’s going ahead. It won’t be postponed or pushed out. The reason it was moved from March was because of Covid. We didn’t know what was going to happen.
‘We didn’t sell the 12,000 tickets but who knows what’s going to happen in the two weeks prior to the draw.
‘This is a genuine draw. All the money raised will go into providing facilities for the community, that will be there for future generations of young people.
‘We will make money but we need the support of the community on this. We have put huge resources into building underage numbers. We are an All-Ireland Féile winning club without a clubhouse.’
Raffle tickets are available from any officer of the club and can also be purchased at www.winthehouse.ie.