Igniting Healthcare 50/50 Gives Boost to Cardiac Care at CKHA

After 11 weeks of ticket sales and great anticipation, we have a winner for the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Foundation (CKHAF) Igniting Healthcare 50/50 FUNdraiser. Rick De Marse, Paul Ballay, and James Desjardins – Three life-long friends from neighbouring Tecumseh will be splitting the $131,260 jackpot – half of the $262,520 total amount raised. This marks the third straight year the campaign has awarded a jackpot in excess of $100,000.

“The Igniting Healthcare 50/50 has become an event that our community waits for all year” says Mary Lou Crowley, CKHAF President & CEO. “Tickets were purchased in all corners of Chatham-Kent, making this a true community-wide initiative.”

The three friends, who are avid motorcycle enthusiasts, have spent years riding throughout Chatham-Kent as what they refer to as their “coast-to-coast” ride from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. On Tuesday June 15th, they were enjoying a ride through Erieau when they stopped for lunch at Bayside Brewing Co. and saw our team out front selling tickets for the Igniting Healthcare 50/50 and decided to split on a $50 ticket.

Rick, whose family is originally from Wallaceburg and Tilbury, says his share of the winnings will allow for his wife to join him in retirement. Paul also plans to spoil his wife with a new car, and James, who just found out this morning that their ticket had won, is still thinking about what he plans to do with his portion of the prize money.

Funds raised through this year’s 50/50 will support cardiac care with the purchase of six new Electrocardiograph (ECG) machines for CKHA’s Chatham and Wallaceburg sites.

“The new state-of-the-art ECG machines will help to provide more accurate diagnosis for cardiac patients.” says Lori Marshall, President & CEO at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. “Although there can only be one prize winner, I believe everyone in Chatham-Kent wins when we are able to invest in our community’s health care.” adds Marshall.

The campaign launched during an extended provincial lockdown with in-person ticket sales postpone for a number of weeks, but that didn’t stop the community from getting online as 79% of all tickets sold were purchased through the website.

“Once again, our community has really come through” says Bob Hockney, Vice-Chair of CKHAF’s Board of Directors. “We are so fortunate to have such incredible support, especially from our partner Maple City Homes, who was instrumental in making this campaign a huge success” adds Hockney.

Maple City Homes has partnered with the Foundation to sponsor the Igniting Healthcare 50/50 FUNdraiser since the inaugural campaign and continues to be involved as a way to contribute to local health care.

A total of 7,437 tickets accounting for 880,860 numbers were sold for this year’s Igniting Healthcare 50/50 FUNdraiser.