SIX NATIONS — The Chase the Ace Winner Betty DeCaire was awarded the progressive and weekly jackpot combined of $81,180 and $4,060 on Thursday, March 21 at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena by representatives of the Six Nations Minor Lacrosse Association; Registrar and Executive Colleen Montour, Secretary Mandi Styres and President Kevin McNaughton.
“We started Chase the Ace mid-season and went for thirty-nine weeks,” said Montour.
The purpose of the fundraiser is to help with the costs of running the SNMLA which hosts programming for hundreds of young lacrosse players from Six Nations and the surrounding area each year.
“A lot of times people don’t realize the cost of operating a minor lacrosse association,” she said. “It’s going to offset floor time costs, it’s going to help with refurbishing and buying jerseys for the kids, it’s also going to offset tournament costs. The SNMLA actually pays for two tournaments for each team and one tournament for one team can cost anywhere from six hundred and fifty dollars to seven hundred dollars.”
She said that the money will also help send the Peewee, Bantam and Midget teams to qualifiers.
For this fundraiser in particular, Montour said that nearly a year ago; they chose someone that wasn’t associated with the SNMLA to shuffle a deck of cards and place a single card into 52 numbered envelopes. Then the name of the game was to find the envelope with the ace of spades by purchasing $5.00 tickets to have a chance to select which envelope had it.
Each week the progressive jackpot grew and Montour said that the fundraiser got a lot of attention as card numbers were eliminated each week. “Each week we would draw one ticket out of our drum and that ticket would have a number on it and we would open it up,” she said. “We would do it live on air with Jukasa, and the grand total of the amount of tickets sold would be the pot and thirty per cent of that pot went to the weekly prize. Thirty per cent went to SNMLA and forty per cent went to the progressive jackpot.”
She said that each week someone won the weekly, but if they caught the ace of spades they would win both. This was the case for DeCaire.
“I’m overwhelmed,” said DeCaire. “I’m shaking and I’m surprised that I won.”
She said that she bought tickets for each of the remaining numbers for that week and that the “first thing” she’ll be using the money for is to “pay off the bills.”
Montour noted that other members and volunteers of SNMLA including Vice President Frank Staats, Treasurer Michelle Bomberry, Coaching Convener Neil Henhawk and Fundraising and Banquet Organizer Lana Henhawk for offering their time and dedication.
They also wished to thank Jukasa Radio and Deejay Carla
