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A small crowd gathered at the Kirbo Center on Thursday evening. Their reason for gathering: to support CASA of Southwest Georgia, and to potentially win $10,000. This fundraiser was a reverse-raffle, with members and volunteers having begun raising money for it earlier this year, with ticket sales from CASA’s wine and cheese social, as well as from Inland’s charity golf tournament.

Nan McIntosh, Executive Director of CASA, spoke with the Post-Searchlight about the fundraiser. She clarified that CASA had done this fundraiser once prior to COVID, and were now hoping to bring it back annually. With raffle tickets costing $100, McIntosh estimated around 200 tickets in total were sold. As a reverse-raffle, the names of all tickets were called, with a door prize given out roughly every 30 tickets. The last three tickets called would be awarded different prizes: third place would receive a tailgate package including a folding chair, umbrella and cooler, second would receive $1,000, and first place would receive the coveted $10,000 check.

After over an hour of drawing tickets and narrowing the field down, the three winners were finally announced, with Andrew Avery placing in third, Summer Boyd and her fiancé Dallas coming in second, and mother-daughter pair Lena Higgins and Kelly Bridges coming first.

“I would say it was a big success,” McIntosh said. “We didn’t sell as many tickets as we would have liked, but we had so much fun, and the support we got from the community is amazing.” According to McIntosh, between the ticket sales from the wine and cheese social and the reverse-raffle, CASA was able to raise around $29,000.

“I’d like just to thank everyone that bought a ticket,” she said, “thank the Chamber, the United Way, Inland, Family Connection and First Port City Bank for their continuous support in everything we do. I’d also like to thank our volunteers, our board and staff.”

For those interested in volunteering with CASA, they can be reached at 229-248-1040.