The Saskatchewan Festival of Words is back in action with a handful of events, including the new COVID Coping Kit Raffle currently up for grabs.
The raffle is the COVID-safe replacement for the Festival’s usual wine night fundraiser and features three prizes available to win when the final draw is made on Dec. 15.
"We decided to do the raffle this year because we obviously couldn't do our in-person wine fundraiser that we do and we still wanted to have a fundraiser," said operations manager Amanda Farnel. "And so we thought the easiest way to do this for everyone would be to have a raffle, and we were able to get all the prizes donated and sponsored."
The first-place prize is 13 bottles of wine and a dozen books, curated by the Festival of Words staff, in addition to two wine glasses, a wine rack and a corkscrew to properly enjoy the prize.
Second place features a prize basket that includes liquor, a blanket, a candle, a colouring book and more, while third place will take home two bottles of wine, two books and two wine glasses.
All of the prizes are meant to help the winners fill their time in the coming winter months, as the pandemic and the cold weather continue. As well, most of the books included in the prize packs are also from authors featured in past years of the Festival.
"Everyone is staying home right now, and we thought it would be really good if we could give away something that people could use for Christmas gifts, or just something to make it through the rest of the year," said Amanda. "We thought books and wine would be a great pairing and we thought it would be a great way to familiarize people with what we do and who we bring in [to the Festival.]"
Tickets for the raffle are $10 or 3 for $20 and can only be purchased in-person with cash at the Festival of Words office in the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre, available any Friday up until the draw date.
All of the items have been donated by local businesses, according to the Festival’s Facebook page, and proceeds from the raffle will go back towards the non-profit organization to help with programming and planning future events.
