For the 2015 Florida Strawberry Festival, Unity in the Community and Stingray Chevrolet aimed to make their annual raffle bigger than ever.
The move paid off, as both sides learned Monday that their Chevrolet Corvette really brought in the big bucks.
Presenting to a showroom packed with prominent Plant City citizens and more, Stingray Chevrolet owner Steve Hurley and his wife, Susan, grinned from ear to ear after lifting the cover from Unity’s latest charity check. The locally-based charity organization will now have an extra $162,000 to work with between now and the next Strawberry Festival, an amount that drew audible gasps and thunderous applause from the crowd.
“It is $50,000 more than we raised last year,” Steve Hurley says. “Every dollar goes to Unity. Even if we would have raised $20,000, that’s still $20,000 more than Unity would have had. That’s what we’re very proud of. This exceeded the car by almost three times the cost.”
The decision to raffle off the Corvette was a long time coming for the Hurleys, who simply decided that this year would be the right time to give one away. Of roughly 32,400 tickets sold, it only took one to win and, for the first time in raffle history, someone from inside Plant City won.
Ann Trinkle ended up in the raffle when her husband, Robert, bought her ticket. As far as $5 purchases go, it doesn’t get much better than a brand new Corvette – and she’s still thrilled about it.
“On a scale from 1-10,” she says, “how about 50.”
Stingray employee Dave Davenport, a salesman whom Trinkle describes as being “like a son” to the family, sold the winning ticket. Trinkle was given the keys to the car during Monday’s check presentation, and got to finally take the car for herself after it was over. Although she turned down an audience member’s request to do donuts in the parking lot, she did promise that she would get “real sporty” behind the wheel.
“Oh, you’d better believe,” she said. “I’m gonna love it.”
The Trinkles, longtime supporters of Unity in the Community, may have only been more thrilled about the amount raised for the charity. Like the rest of the audience, they could hardly believe how successful this raffle was.
As for Unity itself, the group can’t wait to cash the check and start putting the money to good use around town.
“We’ll be doing some of the same projects we’ve been doing in the past,” chairwoman Linda Lawson says. “United Food Bank, Meals on Wheels and Lots of Hugs. However, we will be looking at other organizations that are worthwhile and may need funding, as well. With this raffle, we can broaden our base, somewhat.”