|
| You could win this. |
Looking to get lucky this summer?
Odds are exceptionally good you will, thanks to two truly grand prize raffles launching this month.
One sends you and five friends flying to New York City, hands you $6,000 cash for your trouble, then fills you up with a weekend-long foodie tour that includes a six-course menu made and served by Mario Batali.
The other puts you in the driver’s seat of a brand new Chevrolet Volt you can call your own.
The Mario Batali Molto Big Apple Weekend is a fundraiser for the Leelanau Conservancy, which is selling only 100 raffle tickets – each one priced at $1,000. (Don’t be daunted; that’s $166 per person if you buy in as a six-some.)
The prize winner’s weekend includes a salumi and wine tasting, and dinner at Batali’s Otto enoteca pizzeria; a six-course tasting menu at his flagship restaurant, Babbo, cooked and served by the chef himself; and a behind-the-scenes tour at Eataly (an artisanal market with oodles of restaurants) that includes an olive oil class and lunch at Eataly’s Pizza/Pasta, plus $6,000 cash to defray travel expenses.
There won’t be much to defray, of course, if you win the 2012 Chevrolet Volt from the "Charge Up the Dunes" raffle, which kicks off later this month. (At 73 to 94 miles per gallon, driving 850 miles from TC to NYC in a Volt could cost as little as $40.)
Again, your chances here are solid: "The Charge Up the Dunes" sponsors – TART Trails and Cherry Republic – are selling only 1,200 tickets at $100 each or three for $250.
Every dollar raised will go to the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, the 27-mile non-motorized pathway that, when finished, will run the length of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, from Glen Arbor to Empire. (Incidentally, today at 1:30 p.m. at the Dune Climb, you can celebrate the trail's first completed section – a nearly five-mile stretch between Glen Arbor and the climb.)
Volt raffle tickets go on sale later this month at Cherry Republic stores or online here. The drawing happens at 4 p.m. on September 1 at Cherry Republic’s Glen Arbor location.
Tickets for the Big Apple Weekend go on sale to the public Wednesday, June 27, and will be sold – first-come, first-serve – at the Conservancy’s office in Leland or by phone: 231-256-9665. The winning ticket will be drawn at the Leelanau Conservancy Picnic on August 2. Learn more here.
Perhaps Mario could pay his wait staff that is suing him for taking their tips for years. Maybe we could find someone else that could represent our region in a more authentic and less Wine Oh centric way...