After months of ticket sales, the winner of the Nelson Tasman Hospice car raffle was finally handed the keys to his new set of wheels on Saturday afternoon.
Having purchased tickets at the Nelson Home and Garden Show, Craig Cook had no expectations of winning the major raffle prize, valued at $9000.
“I was overwhelmed because we’d been wanting to update our vehicles for a long time and I just couldn’t believe it was us, I thought it might have been a prank,” he says.
“It’s just really amazing that this company was able to donate a car to Hospice and at the end of the day, for me, it was more of a donation, I didn’t expect to win anything, I just thought it’s a good cause so I bought a few tickets, but it’s amazing to have won. It was actually Craig’s birthday on Saturday so it was the perfect birthday present, picking up a new car,” says his wife Rebekah.
The Mazda Verisa was donated to Nelson Tasman Hospice by Paul Kelly from Value Vehicles.
Paul is also a trustee of hospice’s funding trust board and says he was only too happy to donate the car because of how important hospice is in the community.
“Hospice provides much-needed care and support to patients and their families. I don’t think there is anyone in the Nelson Tasman region who hasn’t been touched by hospice services.”
The raffle saw 1500 tickets sold, raising around $7500 which will be used as a kick-start for the capital fundraising campaign for the new home for Nelson Tasman Hospice.
