Reversal

Tonight I attended a reverse raffle for a charity cause. Jeff could not come because it was the first day of practice (yea for basketball season starting!). I found the whole idea of a reverse raffle pretty cool, especially after I found out what it actually meant.

There was a lot going on at the dinner. A silent auction, various raffles, but the reverse raffle highlighted the evening. You see, reverse basically means backwards. So, every raffle number picked is actually out once it is picked. The very last number left, who would normally be the ultimate loser, is the winner here. Reverse style.

Love the idea. Once it got going however, I realized there were over 200 people involved in the raffle. Therefore there were 200 numbers that needed to be called. I was about ready to leave after the excitement of the first ten faded.

After a year and a half of picking numbers, there were five left. These five gathered in the front of the room and got to decide if they wanted to split the $2,000 prize or duke it out. Each time a person was eliminated, they decided again if they wanted to split or duke. The final two folks decided they wanted to split saying $1,000 ain't half bad. I thought it was a good decision. It would have been very sad to leave empty handed after making it that far. 

After that was decided and both contestants received their $1,000, it struck one of them that this is indeed a charity event. The first winner went up and announced that she was donating her $1,000. This was very much to the other lady's dismay. I decided to check out her face, and there was no doubt she wanted her $1,000 but now felt obligated to also donate her winnings. At the end of the night, she finally caved and reluctantly donated her money back to the charity. 

I like to think that I fit in at a charity event, but I do not think I do. I felt for that woman, giving back $1,000 that she just won. I would definitely be asking around if it was okay to simply give twenty bucks back or something. Plus, there was a winner chosen among the losing numbers. They received $50 worth of lottery tickets. Lottery tickets could yield much more than $2,000, but no matter what, they are worth more than the zero the raffle winners left with! The real winners were the winner of the losers and of course, the charity!