Lovell Rodeo Club kicks off fundraising

Auction, Chase the Ace game slated for Saturday

The reinvigorated Lovell Rodeo Club is going full steam ahead this month with fundraisers members hope will lead to needed improvements at the Lovell Rodeo Grounds.
Coming up this Saturday night is the annual rodeo auction at the Oasis west of Lovell. The evening begins with a social hour at 6:30 p.m., followed by the live auction at 8.
“We like the environment there,” rodeo club board member Charis Bischoff said. “It’s laid back and social.”
Besides the live auction, the evening will feature a “card deck raffle” for an AR-15 package to be drawn that night, with a maximum one in 54 chance to win.
Bischoff said a new fundraising effort is underway this month and will continue in the months ahead, a Chase the Ace fundraiser, which she describes as a non-profit, progressive raffle. Each week, people may enter the raffle by purchasing tickets at $5 each, as many as a person wants. There will be a weekly drawing of one ticket with a new pot of money built each week.
Ticket sales end each Tuesday night, and one winner is drawn each Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Each winner can claim 20 percent of that week’s pot and the chance to draw a card from a 54-card deck (including two jokers), hoping to draw the ace of spades. If the ace is not drawn, the card drawn will be torn in half and removed from the deck, increasing the odds of winning the ace in the next drawing.
For each week’s pot, 20 percent goes to the winner, 30 percent goes into the progressive pot and 50 percent goes to the rodeo club.
The fundraiser began February 1, and the first week’s drawing will be held at the auction Saturday night. Since that would leave a short week for the ensuing drawing, the second drawing will take place on February 21, with sales ending February 20. The fundraiser will continue on a regular schedule after that.
Tickets are available from rodeo club members, at any of Lovell’s three bars -- the Diamond J, Shoshone Bar and the 4 Corners, online via the club’s website: www.lovellrodeoclub.com or through Venmo at Venmo@Lovell-Rodeo-Club.
Each week’s drawing after the auction will rotate among the three bars, with the first taking place at the Diamond J, Bischoff said.
The fundraising method is extremely popular in Bischoff’s hometown of Presho, South Dakota, and in Central South Dakota in general, she said, with large sums of money raised and huge winners in even the small towns.
One winner in Presho won $85,000, she said, in a town of 600.
“It’s similar to the Queen of Hearts fundraiser,” she said. “I’ve been watching it (in South Dakota) and waiting for a year to do it. It has tremendous winning potential. … It takes a lot of work to do it, and it’s not a quick fundraiser, but it has low overhead.”
Bischoff said the rodeo grounds are badly in need of some upgrades.
“There’s a ton of stuff to be done at the grounds,” she said. “We’d love a concessions stand and restroom facility and covering the grandstands. It’s more than small donations can create.
“It’s for an overall improvement/upgrade at the rodeo grounds. All (money raised) will go back into our community.”
For more information, contact the Lovell Rodeo Club at 307-254-9577. Full Chase the Ace rules are available at the club’s website.