The Society of Jesus in Victoria, Jesuit Communications Christmas Raffle 2019 was drawn on Thursday, 5 December 2019 (Permit No 10590/19)
Congratulations to the winners: 1st prize: L Daphne, VIC; 2nd prize: A Curran, QLD; 3rd prize: D Sasse, VIC. All winners have been notified directly.
Thank you to everyone who supported our Christmas raffle.
WHAT A WIN*
Multiple families have benefited from Jesuit Media’s 2019 winter raffle thanks to the generosity of Cronulla woman, Toni Downes.
Toni requested her $7500 prize of Coles Myer cards be divided into $150 lots, which she then donated to her local St Vincent de Paul Night Conference.
‘I’m not really sure why I did it. It just seemed natural to ensure that such a marvellous prize went directly to people who needed it most. I was really just using the raffle as a vehicle for donation, so I did not expect to gain anything from it,’ Toni said.
She has never won a big raffle before and said she only uses raffles as a way to make donations to good causes.
‘Normally I would prefer to just make a straight donation, so not sure why I did not do that this time around.’
She chose St Vincent de Paul because of the marvellous work it did in the community and because she knew the organisers well enough to know that they would be careful in distributing the money.
St Vincent de Paul
Vicki Rolland, president of St Vincent de Paul Night Conference at St Aloysius Parish, Cronulla, (pictured left with Toni Downes) said she and the Conference were ‘blown away by Toni’s generosity’. ‘I was so happy, I cried,’ she said.
Vicki said while Cronulla shire has wealthy areas, many people are struggling.
‘The donation will make such a difference to so many people and we can help out other Conferences who are doing it tough.’
Toni is a reader of a Madonna sister publication – the online Eureka Street.
‘I love the diversity of articles and authors, and always find Andrew Hamilton’s articles leave me much to think about,’ she said.
Generous winners
Other Jesuit Media raffle winners have also been generous with their prizes.
Peter McCorley, Queensland, said he and his wife were overjoyed with their December 2018 win. ‘Because it came around Christmas time we were able to surprise the grandchildren with a bigger than normal Christmas.’ They used some of their winnings to make Christmas better for others in their community by donating to charities.
Winner of the Winter 2018 raffle Virginia Schneider said her prize came in very handy as it enabled her to celebrate her 70th birthday in a much bigger way than she normally would. She said the prize enabled her to indulge her family as well as making donations to charities.
*The ‘What a win’ story appeared in Madonna magazine’s summer 2019/20 edition
Image: Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ drew the winning tickets on Thursday, 5 December 2019.
