Raffling Off Christmas

Before moving to Belize, I had never heard of a raffle except at a Catholic Festival, a charity event, or a kid's school. Things are different in Belize. Every holiday, and especially at Christmas, many of the grocery stores, the hardware stores, and even the gas station, cable television station, and Smart Phone Service store offer "raffles". Wikipedia defines a raffle as" a competition in which people buy numbered tickets. It is a popular game in numerous countries and is often held to raise funds for a specific charity, event or occasion." The pictures on today's blog won't be fancy, and you probably won't be able to see them very well unless you click on them and make them bigger, but the advertising is fast and furious for getting your raffle tickets....hurry, before the drawing!!!

Smart Phone got in on this year's raffle, but the drawing was December 12....may be time to take the ad out of the paper

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San Pedro Hardware...they have a raffle too.....last year I ran down there with my tickets the day before the drawing, and they informed me that they decided to draw the numbers early......go figure!

Dalia's Store raffle......wonder why 5th place is a t-shirt and a ham....do you think the ham is wearing a t-shirt? Do you need to wear the t-shirt to cook the ham?

Castillo's Hardware....first prize is $10,000.00. A few years ago we went to the drawing when they were giving away a new golf cart. They have one of those giant chicken wire round baskets with a little flap on the front. The spun and spun the basket, but a problem occurred. On one exceptionally fast spin, the little flap flew open and the industrial fans inside the store spread the tickets inside all over the store. The drawing, televised and on the radio, was complete with Miss San Pedro, the Mayor and other dignitaries. While the staff crawled around on the floor trying to find all the tickets, children waiting outside where the refreshments were began stuffing meat pies into their pockets and backpacks. We didn't win the cart, by the way.

This is a combination raffle for the Caribena gas stations and Coral Cablevision. I always pay my cable bill in December for the entire year to insure I ge the most chances to win.

Harmouch's Hardware is giving away some good stuff too.....

And if you are ever shopping in the San Pedrano Grocery, they have a raffle every week, on Saturdays. They don't make a big fuss about it, nor do they tell you what the prize is, but hey, you might as well fill out a ticket! Super Buy has one at Christmas time, but they use the cheap rolls of red tickets.

This year's stash looks pretty promising!