By Marcel Pacatte
Brothers Dominick York and Zander York are more than familiar with both sides of a good prank, so you’ll pardon their “yeah, right” responses when their phones came alive — texts and calls from friends and cousins — telling them they had won the $100,000 first prize in the annual Routt Catholic High School/Our Saviour School DREAMS Drawing.
And then they each got a call from their mother, Michelle York, which was confirmation that the news was real — even though she, too, can appreciate an exquisite prank.
That was Labor Day weekend three years ago.
Dominick York had been dining with friends in downtown Jacksonville when he got the news, and said recently that after he spoke with his mother — if jubilant shouting back and forth can be characterized as speaking — he ran the entire way to the Our Saviour Parish Family Fun Festival grounds. Zander York had been across the street from the festival but no less excited and no less speedy in getting to his mother’s side to claim the prize.
The brothers, then 15 and 14 and a sophomore and a freshman at Routt, said they were only vaguely aware that their mother wrote their names on one of the two tickets she buys each year.
They were heroes at school the following Tuesday morning and by the time they received their checks a couple of months later and after the government got its cut, they gratefully each gave their mom a share, spent a little as mad money and soberly invested the rest.
The elder and wiser York brother, Dominick, said his advice to future winners is to be smart with the money.
Longtime annual ticket buyer Alison Yording doesn’t need that advice, even though she agrees with it and hopes to be a future winner. She is now retired after working several years with Edward Jones Investments. She said she has bought a ticket every single year the drawing has been in existence and hasn’t even won one of the smaller prizes drawn in the raffle.
She’s not bitter. Much.
She smiled, acknowledging that the raffle — and her money — goes toward a good cause. One can’t be bitter about a drawing that has raised more than $6.5 million since its inception, all of it being divided between the Catholic high school and grade school in the form of reducing students’ tuition. Yording and her husband, Chris, sent their three children to Routt, so there’s a little indirect benefit to the household, even if the raffle futility has the upper hand.
Becky McClellan is leading this year’s Dreams effort and said she hopes the Yordings and the Yorks and the rest of y’all buy early and often.
In early July, she was just a little anxious. She wants to make sure her team can sell all the tickets — 4,500 this year. “I don’t want to be the first who doesn’t,” she joked.
Her immediate predecessor as Dreams chairman, Amy White, pointed out that McClellan has an entire extra week to sell the $100 tickets, Labor Day falling later this year than last, but McClellan won’t exhale until she is closer to meeting the goal.
The raffle in some aspects runs itself, but those tickets don’t all sell themselves.
McClellan may say she is anxious but she does have a plan, and it’s one she said she feels good about.
When asked, she said she wouldn’t characterize it as being a superpower but she does, she says, know a lot of people.
She works in Pittsfield and is from Bluffs, plus her husband is from Waverly and they have now lived in Jacksonville for 25 years. That covers a lot of territory, and people, and she is counting on it translating into a lot of purchases. She is not, however, one to count checkbooks before they’re opened.
Her co-chairman, Keri Fox, has been involved with the committee for more than a decade. She said she enjoys the camaraderie and has stayed involved because of the worthiness of the cause: “I always want to help people.”
McClellan said she is extremely pleased to have 13 sponsors who all have donated $1,000, along with (16) $500 sponsors and (19) $250 sponsors.
The drawing is held in conjunction with the Our Saviour Parish Family Fun Fest, and the festival has been cut back to a single day this year. But there still will be plenty for the entire family to do.
She said in addition to the regular entertainment, food and silent auction, they are bringing back the dunk tank this year and will have musical bingo along with an acoustic band in the beer tent in the afternoon.
The drawing is at 6 p.m. Sunday, September 6, and the “Dream Girls” — volunteers who work the office, selling tickets and processing ones sold by parishioners and parents — already are hard at it.
There are 61 other prizes that will be drawn in addition to the dream-fulfilling $100,000 grand prize.
People may purchase from ticket agents; in person at the Dreams office, which has its own entrance on the west side of the parish office building, 453 E. State St.; by calling 217-243-1632; by going to rchsossdreams.com; or by mail at 453 E. State St., Jacksonville, Illinois 62650.
Anyone who attempts to purchase a ticket after the tickets have sold out will have their money refunded. If all tickets aren’t sold, the raffle converts to a 50/50, but McClellan doesn’t want to talk about that because she has her sights set on yet another sellout.
There was also the Early-Bird Drawing, which was held after Mass on Sunday, July 26. Eight prizes were drawn at that — one for $250, one for $500, four for $1,000, one for $2,000 and one for $10,000. Those winners all go back into the drum for the September 6 drawing.
Michelle York said she, like Yording, has bought tickets year after year and has known nothing but futility herself. “I have never won a thing throughout the years. But that’s OK. Seeing my boys win — seeing their faces on that day — has made every other year worth it.”
And like Yording, she continues to buy.
“I have been on the Dreams Drawing committee for four years, selling tickets and working various promotions and assisting on the day of the drawing,” York said. “The Family Fun Fest and the Dreams Drawing are my favorite fundraisers for Routt and OSS. It’s always a fun weekend where family, friends and community come together for great conversation, food, drink, music and games for the kids and adults.”
With volunteers such as York, McClellan has nothing to worry about, extra week or no.
