Raffle

The Double-A Bowie Baysox announced a raffle to benefit the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. The team is partnering with the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to raffle a pair of 2010 season tickets, and 100 percent of every dollar raised will support UNICEF's relief efforts for children in Haiti. Fans can go to baysox.com to purchase raffle tickets. Each ticket costs $10, and fans can purchase as many tickets as they want until the raffle closes at 5 p.m. Jan. 29. The winner will receive a pair of lower reserved seat tickets for all 71 Baysox 2010 home games.

"New Works" exhibit of oil and pastel paintings by Rana Geralis of her favorite subjects, horses and nature, is on view through Friday, Oct. 28, at Artists' Gallery, American City Building, 10227 Wincopin Circle in Columbia. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Closed Sundays. Gallery is also open by appointment. Information: 410-740-8249 or artistsgallerycolumbia.com. Sunday, Oct. 23 'Fall Spooktacular' Event for children ages 3-12 will be held from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Gary J. Arthur Community Center, 2400 Route 97 in Cooksville.

A raffle of a $1.6 million house in Baltimore County sounded good to some people - enough to sell 12,000 tickets at $100 a pop. But organizers needed about 20,000 ticket sales to make it worthwhile, and they were hoping for 35,000. So: no raffle. Reader Steve Scarborough told me he got a refund for the two tickets he bought, but "they kept $5.96 per ticket." "I suppose that could add up to a tidy profit for them even if they only sold half of the 35,000 tickets," he wrote in an e-mail.

The Restaurant Association of Maryland (RAM) Education Foundation wants to put you an Audi. The top prize in the 12th annual car raffle fundraiser is an 2012 Audi A3 from Valley Motor, with $10,000 and $5,000 as second and third prize, respectively.  "This year's car raffle is a WIN-WIN for everyone involved," said Michael Birchenall, chairman of the RAM Education Foundation board of directors.    Everyone purchasing a $300 raffle...

A Colorado woman who won a $1.2 million home in Edgewater in a $50-a-ticket raffle last January has sold the property to a local church at a bargain-basement price. "Hooray, finally!" said Karen McHale, 47, who lives in a home she built with her husband in the mountains west of Denver and never intended to move to the Mid-Atlantic. "I tell you, that was a giant rock around my neck." McHale said she bought two raffle tickets last year as a contribution to the charity that was co-sponsoring the contest, which came about when a mortgage broker teamed up with the Annapolis-based We Care and Friends, which helps at-risk youths, to sell his home.

Is raffle about guns or grandstanding? Call it the Big Bang theory. The theory of political gamesmanship, not of cosmogony. Attract lots of attention for a small price. More bang for the buck. Show that you are on the offensive on gun ownership, not on the defense. That's the apparent strategy behind the Carroll County Republican Central Committee's idea raffle off a handgun as a fundraiser next month. The funds raised from selling thousands of $5 raffle tickets (4,000 reportedly printed)

A hearty breakfast at the Center Club kicked off the secon House with a Heart Raffle, sponsored by the House with a Heart Foundation. The group hopes to raise $300,000 to fund projects for Action for the Homeless.Last year's raffle landed Bob Gilwee of Sparks a new home in Odenton and raised more than a quarter of a million dollars, which was distributed to help Maryland's 47,000 homeless people. This year's raffle home is a three-bedroom town house, valued at $126,000, in Harford County's Belle Manor development.

Hey kids! Here's a hot piece of real estate for you: a free-standing, custom-built house with features that could include skylights, copper roof or Greek and Roman-style columns, all in your parents' backyard, for just $5.Voices For Children, an Ellicott City-based children's advocacy group, plans to raffle off four such deluxe playhouses at $5 a chance, as part of a fund-raising effort for its Court Appointed Special Advocate program.These aren't ordinary backyard clubhouses, the kind that sit in a tree and have three-foot ceilings.

Dr. C. Ronald Franks has shown aggressiveness and imagination in his campaign for the Senate Republican nomination, but in raffling off a Colt AR-15 H-BAR assault weapon to raise campaign funds, he showed insensitivity and irresponsibility bordering on the criminal. The crime? Possibly aiding and abetting some criminal's acquisition of a deadly weapon that Congress has voted to ban.Dr. Franks says he would not agree to awarding the prize to a criminal or ex-criminal, but, apparently, he has taken no steps to make sure the anonymous winner is the sort of person who should have an AR-15 (whatever kind of person that is)

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: People helping people is what the House with a Heart is all about. And what's so neat about the House with a Heart project, which will benefit Maryland's homeless, is that we all have a chance to win. All it takes is a lot of luck and a little money -- $10 for a ticket, and anyone could win a lovely new home in Seven Oaks, a new community in Anne Arundel County.The raffle drawing will be held at the house on Oct. 26 and it should be quite a show, especially if Barbara Bush says yes to Gov. William Donald Schaefer's invitation to draw the winning ticket.

Editor: The Humane Society of Harford County would like to thank everyone who supported our seventh annual Bow Wow Boogie Bull and Oyster Roast on Friday, May 6, at the Richlin Ballroom. This event is Harford County's largest party for the homeless and neglected animals at the shelter, and we were able to raise an amazing $30,000! Many thanks to our numerous sponsors and a special thanks to Animal Emergency Hospital as our "You're My Hero" event sponsor. The support of all our corporate sponsors in this difficult economy serves to reaffirm the specialness of what we do. Thanks also go out to the many organizations and individuals that donated items for our silent and live auctions and raffle.

A raffle of a $1.6 million house in Baltimore County sounded good to some people - enough to sell 12,000 tickets at $100 a pop. But organizers needed about 20,000 ticket sales to make it worthwhile, and they were hoping for 35,000. So: no raffle. Reader Steve Scarborough told me he got a refund for the two tickets he bought, but "they kept $5.96 per ticket." "I suppose that could add up to a tidy profit for them even if they only sold half of the 35,000 tickets," he wrote in an e-mail.

The Double-A Bowie Baysox announced a raffle to benefit the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. The team is partnering with the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to raffle a pair of 2010 season tickets, and 100 percent of every dollar raised will support UNICEF's relief efforts for children in Haiti. Fans can go to baysox.com to purchase raffle tickets. Each ticket costs $10, and fans can purchase as many tickets as they want until the raffle closes at 5 p.m. Jan. 29. The winner will receive a pair of lower reserved seat tickets for all 71 Baysox 2010 home games.

A Colorado woman who won a $1.2 million home in Edgewater in a $50-a-ticket raffle last January has sold the property to a local church at a bargain-basement price. "Hooray, finally!" said Karen McHale, 47, who lives in a home she built with her husband in the mountains west of Denver and never intended to move to the Mid-Atlantic. "I tell you, that was a giant rock around my neck." McHale said she bought two raffle tickets last year as a contribution to the charity that was co-sponsoring the contest, which came about when a mortgage broker teamed up with the Annapolis-based We Care and Friends, which helps at-risk youths, to sell his home.

Sixth-graders at Mayfield Woods Middle School will be vying for the opportunity to dine with Ravens players at ESPN Zone in the spring and for tickets to a game in November as a reward for improving their physical fitness. The reward is part of Play 60 Challenge, a four-week contest where students are encouraged to engage in physical activity for 60 minutes during the day. Organizers hope the added incentive of meeting professional athletes will increase motivation for the students. "They are pretty pumped about it," said Danielle L. King, a physical education teacher at the school and organizer of the activity.

Phoenix house raffle drawing date pushed back A $100-per-ticket raffle fundraiser with a $1.6 million Baltimore County house as the prize has been extended to early next year, with the Oct. 15 drawing rescheduled for Feb. 26. Organizers of the raffle, Upperco-based nonprofit Universal Peacemakers Foundation, which helps financially troubled homeowners, said they extended the raffle to sell the 20,000 minimum number of tickets required before they can...

The American Red Cross is getting help from a builder and a realty company, both from Ellicott City, who are teaming up to build and raffle off a $125,000 house.Apex Realty Inc. and Pacesetter Homes Inc. will donate proceeds from the raffle to the Baltimore chapter of the Red Cross, which estimates that donations to its disaster relief fund for Central Maryland are down about $15,000 after the flooding in the Midwest."When there's a national disaster, it's harder to raise money locally," said Linda Klein, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross.

It is a raffle billed as a way to help the state's homeless and at the same time win a free house in Seven Oaks.Organizers say the sale of tickets could raise at least $250,000 by giving away a $200,000single-family home to some lucky person.In addition, organizers tout the raffle as a good way to attract local and national celebrities to the county and help fill the depleted coffers of an organization that works to take people living on thestreet and give them a place to call home."It is fitting to raffle off a house to raise money for someone who is homeless," said Cathy Lyness, coordinator for Action for the Homeless.

Would you take a $100 chance on winning a $1.6 million house? Organizers of an estate home raffle in Baltimore County are betting as many as 35,000 people will step up to buy a ticket, compelled by the unusually big prize - a 5-bedroom mini-mansion on an estate lot in Phoenix - and the chance to help out a local charity. House raffles such as this one have been used as fundraisers by a handful of nonprofits for years, and they are a growing phenomenon as home sellers caught in a recession look for creative ways to stand out and nonprofits seek alternative funding.