By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Even though 50 people won cash prizes ranging from $100 to $6,000, the 16th Annual Draw sponsored by the Caribou Rotary Club will leave its historic thumbprint on the community not only for being a premier social event of the season, but for the community-supportive donations raised through the event that will continue improving Caribou for years to come.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
There were three major cash prize winners of the sixteenth Annual Draw on Dec. 11; pictured from left, Annual Rotary Draw Chair Doug Hunter, third-place winner Evan Graves, second-place winner Larry Fletcher, first-place winner Frank McElwain and Caribou Rotary Club President Mark Draper.
There were three special projects taken under the win of the Annual Rotary Draw this year: a new electronic scoreboard at the Caribou Little League Rotary Field, the need for an expansion of the concession stand (snack shack) for the Caribou High School Athletic Boosters and the communal need for the future Safe Sharps Program through Cary Medical Center with assistance from the Caribou Police Department and the Presque Isle Police Department. As fund raising is still underway for the project, none of the previously mentioned facilities are accepting sharps/needles at this time. When the safe sharps program is implemented in the future, it will provide a safe way for the public to dispose of hazardous medical sharps/needles.
Whether it was through an urge to help the community or an urge to have a good time, Rotarians sold out of tickets — all 1,000 of them — for the drawing and the Caribou Inn and Convention Center was pleasantly packed on Dec. 11 for the event.
“It was the first time we’d sold all the tickets since 2006,” said President of the Caribou Rotary Club Mark Draper. “We had a really good crowd for the event and folks seemed like they had a good time.”
Out of the 50 cash drawings of the evening, there were three top prizes awarded to three lucky individuals: Frank McElwain of Caribou won the first place prize of $6,000, Larry and Nancy Fletcher of Mars Hill won the second place prize of $5,000 and Evan Graves of Caribou won the third place prize of $3,000.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Lydia Kieffer pulls a winner from the raffle tumbler, spun by project chair Douglas Hunter during the Caribou Rotary Club’s Sixteenth Annual Draw held on Saturday. Caribou Rotary Club President Mark Draper stood ready to announce the winner up to the front of the packed convention center so he or she could claim their prize.
