Kids win big at Gourmet Lawn Party

By Observer Staff
| 5:00 a.m. November 27, 2013

File photo. U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan with his wife, Sandy, draw the winning ticket.

Longboat Key
Neighbors

+ Kids win big at Gourmet Lawn Party
The cash or the car?

That’s always the question following the Longboat Key Gourmet Lawn Party raffle in which the grand-prize winner can choose a new car or the cold, hard cash.

This year, the answer is neither, because the winner opted not to take the 2013 Ford Fusion or $10,000 so that 100% of the raffle would benefit Kiwanis.

According to Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key Secretary John Wild, this year’s winning ticket was actually purchased as an anonymous donation for the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key Foundation in honor of Bob Gault, who recently won the club’s Presidential Zeller Award.

The ticket was the only one of 313 that were sold with the words “for the Foundation” written on it.

That means that children and students win big because more than $30,000 will go to the foundation. The event raised more than $50,000 for scholarships and grants.