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‘Chase The Ace’ chased down

Online-C-Chase the Ace Winner

Photo courtesy of the Kelwood Legion

Kelwood Legion President Larry Henton handed over a $34,297 ‘Chase the Ace’ cheque to Roxanne Lesanko of Dauphin this past Saturday. Over 200 people had lined up at Kelwood’s Legion for the chance to win

By Blair Gilmore

Submitted

The village of Kelwood has been gripped with ‘Chase the Ace’ fever that finally broke on September 15 when Kelwood Legion #50 President Larry Henton was able to hand over a winning check. Roxanne Lesanko of Dauphin was the lucky recipient of $34,297.

When the Legion started their first ever ‘Chase the Ace’ just over a year ago with $100 up for grabs, no one in their wildest dreams imagined that it would come down to the final card in the deck or that the progressive lottery was going to grow so large.

Funds raised will be shared between the Legion, the Kelwood Playground Committee, the Kelwood Skating Rink Committee, and the Riding Mountain Hall Committee. It was all hands on deck to keep up with the maximum capacity crowds over the last month.

President Larry Henton wanted to thank everyone who came out to support the Legion and the fundraiser. ‘It has been good seeing the community coming out to socialize and have some fun down at the Legion.’ He said that with the structural collapse of the old skating rink and the loss of revenue from rink events, the Legion needed the financial boost to carry them through until the new facility opens.

Legion Secretary/Treasurer Cindy Hafner described the wild ride. ‘I’m exhausted and at times it was almost overwhelming but it was exhilarating being part of something special like this. The odds of the Ace of Spades being the last card drawn was 1 in 54 (the two jokers had been added to the deck) but to have the Legion get down to the last card on our very first go was incredible.’

Don’t worry if you missed out on your chance this time around, the Legion is restarting their game this Saturday starting with $2000 in the pot.

Blair Gilmore of Kelwood is a recently retired military officer turned freelance writer, who is enjoying the opportunity to return to his roots.