Rotary Club launches annual wine fundraiser
For the Kalispell Noon Rotary Club, it’s time for wine.
The club is conducting its third annual “Win an Instant Wine Cellar” raffle fundraiser, with the goal of raising $19,000 to use for a variety of local and international projects.
The fundraiser features a collection of 100 bottles of fine wine donated by Rotarians and valued at about $2,500.
Raffle tickets are available from any Noon Rotary Club member or at Insty-Prints in Kalispell. They cost $5 each, six for $25 or 25 for $100. In addition to the grand-prize winner, four runners-up will receive cases of wine valued at $125 to $150.
Last year’s wine winner, City Service Valcon, donated the wine collection back to
the club, which “was a pretty awesome thing to do,” said Michael Hayes, chairman of the fundraising committee.
The raffle winner will be announced June 24 at the club’s annual foundation dinner and does not need to be present to win.
The club raised $22,000 two years ago from the wine-cellar fundraiser to donate to the Miracle Field project at the Kidsports Complex in Kalispell. Last year the club raised $18,000 to distribute to a broad range of projects including polio eradication, an international Rotary initiative to wipe out the crippling disease of polio worldwide.
Rotary International’s overall contribution to the eradication effort totals nearly $800 million. In January, Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledge a combined $555 million — which includes Rotary’s $200 Million Challenge — all of it in support of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
“As Rotarians we’re proud to be involved in a project to see this disease wiped out,” Kalispell Noon Rotary Club President Frank Garner said.
The club also financially supports a library in Chacala, Mexico, and members bring supplies to the area.
This year’s wine-cellar fundraiser likewise will support the polio eradication and Chacala projects, but also will benefit many local endeavors.
In the Flathead Valley, Rotary donates to local food banks and the veterans food pantry. The club operates a popular youth basketball program, supports Boy Scouts, sponsors blood drives and donates signing materials for deaf patrons at the library, to name a few of its most high-profile project.
Most recently the club donated a new scoreboard to the Linderman gymnasium in Kalispell.
For more information about Rotary, go online to www.kalispellrotary.org or www.rotary.org.