Two local charities are splitting $15,685 following a successful progressive lottery.
The Rotary Club of Chatham Sunrise and Habitat for Humanity Chatham-Kent (CK) teamed up for the fundraising initiative, Catch the Ace.
The lottery continued to gain momentum with weekly winners before the Ace of Spades was finally pulled 33 weeks later.
Thamesville resident Greg Spence took home the jackpot, winning $9,639 just a week before Christmas.
Fifty per cent of each ticket was donated to the charities, 30 per cent was put towards the jackpot, and 20 per cent went towards the weekly prizes.
Organizers of the fundraisers are happy with the results, saying they did “pretty well.”
“We were able to raise $15,000 that goes directly to the community. That's pretty good. This is the first time we've done it, and we've learned, and we hope to even have more success this second go round,” said the Treasurer of the Rotary Club of Chatham Sunrise, Glenn Smith.
The lump sum of donations will be divided among the two charities to help with ongoing initiatives within the community.
“We help fund outreach for hunger every month. We supply them with ground beef, and we help victim services, community living, lots of different initiatives, all in the local community,” said Smith.
Habitat for Humanity CK has plans to use this money to help break ground on a new affordable house being built in early 2026.
“So the money that we raise will go to our Build Program. Habitat is always working toward the goal of building affordable homes for people right here in CK,” said Anne Taylor, the Director of Partnerships and Stakeholder Relations at Habitat for Humanity CK.
Taylor expressed her appreciation for the community's support, noting they had many participants, including Spence, who played every single week.
“The community has always been very great and gracious to Habitat CK. Actually, a lot of people were very faithful supporters of Catch the Ace, and we hope they come back and support us again, along with a lot more new faces,” said Taylor.
Both Taylor and Smith hope to launch the Catch the Ace campaign for a second time with some tweaks and new prizes.
“We're having a lower price point to get in, an entry point of $5, and we're going to have four different levels, and it's going to be a lot of fun,” said Smith.
The hope is to raise even more money in the campaign's second edition.
"We would love to blow it out of the water. It's two great local charitable organizations who do amazing work in this community. We would love to at least triple that number, you know. Some of these Catch the Aces, they get quite large, and we would love to be up there with them," said Taylor.
The progressive lottery is expected to restart in late January 2026.
