Car for a cause: Jeep is prize in Grieco/Rotary Club raffle

By Thomas Greenberg
Posted 9/26/17

By THOMAS GREENBERG Most brand new cars cost just a bit more than $100 in today's economy, so a chance at a 2017 Jeep Cherokee for that price will be taken by many. Well, as many as 600, that is. The Warwick Rotary Club, in coordination with Grieco

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Car for a cause: Jeep is prize in Grieco/Rotary Club raffle

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Most brand new cars cost just a bit more than $100 in today’s economy, so a chance at a 2017 Jeep Cherokee for that price will be taken by many. Well, as many as 600, that is.

The Warwick Rotary Club, in coordination with Grieco Motors, supplier of this new car, is raffling a brand new car, or a sum of $10,000 if the Rotary sells less than 300 tickets. One lucky winner will come away with either the money or the prize.

“All the money we raise goes to the local charities that have applied for a grant from the Rotary,” Rotary Club member and past president Oliver Brady said. “So far, we’re doing pretty good. We’ve sold close to 25 percent of the tickets, which is ahead of last year.”

The car is parked outside of the Greenwood Credit Union on Post Road until the drawing, which will be held at the Radisson Hotel on October 19.

Last year, the winner was Madeline Hopkins, whose “adopted” grandfather, Al Morin, had bought the ticket for the 16-year-old La Salle student and written her name on it. But he hadn’t written down the right phone number, so finding the winner was a challenge. That is until her grandmother, Dorothy Griffin, thought to call the Beacon to find out the winner’s name.

“I can remember calling last year and finding out Madeline had won,” Griffin said this week. “I think the man who answered had to take the phone away from their ear when I found out it was my Madeline. I was so excited about it because she really needed a car badly.”

Madeline currently has the winnings set aside in a bank account, which she’ll use to put a down payment on a car as soon as possible. For now, she drives a car that her father leases.

As for this year, Griffin is just as excited about the Rotary’s raffle that features the brand new Jeep.

“Oh, we plan on buying a ticket for each of us this year, Al and me both. We’ve just been waiting to get down to the Beacon to get them. I could really use a new car,” Griffin chuckled.

She laughs, but the grand prize was very real for the family last year, all because of Morin. It’ll take some serious luck to win it two years in a row, but some lucky person will come away with the car or the money on October 19.

There will surely be another interesting story to go along with this year’s winner. Let’s just hope they write down the correct phone number on the ticket so they can collect their prize as soon as possible.

Tickets at $100 are available at the Beacon, Greenwood Credit Union and Global Excellence.

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