Saturday, February 18, 2006

Gambling

Once a year, and only once…. I “gamble”. Some might not call it that. Some might call it “making a charitable donation. I call it like it is….gambling, but for a good cause.

Here is the deal. Our high school “senior parents association” has a fund raiser every year to raise money to throw an “all night senior party” for the kids after they graduate from high school. It’s sort of to keep them off the streets and give them a fun safe place to celebrate. It’s a very big deal with lots of great prizes and activities that kids that age would like. It’s expensive though.

So….one innovative idea that they’ve come up with the past few years is to have this dinner… They serve a really nice dinner (this year it’s prime rib) and sell tickets to it for $100.00 per couple. They limit the tickets to 300. That means they raise $30,000.00 through ticket sales. Part of that goes for the food and decorations. About half is used for the senior party, and the rest is given away as tickets are drawn at the dinner. The grand prize is $10,000. They also give smaller cash prizes…a couple $1,000 and several 500 and 250 dollar prizes. Local businesses also donate prizes that are given away.

With all the prizes they give, chances of winning something are something like 1/8. Chances of winning the grand prize of $10,000.00 are 1/300. Now what better odds are there? Certainly better than buying a lottery ticket. That’s why once a year, every year, I buy a ticket to the Fulton High School Senior Parents dinner.

No, I’ve never won anything at all…not even a stupid T-shirt or tickets to a movie. But, the money I’ve spent in an attempt to win has gone to a good cause. And besides…this might be my lucky year.

The dinner is tonight.


Later....
The results of my "investment":
Well, we didn't win the 10,000K BUT we DID win.... $250.00. And that's better than we've ever done before.

2 comments:

Meera said...

Hi Debra
I'm a frequent visitor to ur blogspot. I'm sandhya's friend, went to college with her and had been there for Praveen & Ruth's wedding. Although we dint get a chance to meet i really like reading ur posts. Finally i stepped out of the shadows into the limelight ;-)
Congrats on you $250/- prize and keep blogging!!

~M

Unknown said...

Hi! What a nice surprise to find your comment waiting for me this morning. Were you one of the girls who we "borrowed" for the the "bridal party"? I am always surprised (in a good way) when I find out that someone I don't even know is reading one of my blogs. Thanks for writing.