How’s it going Ocean family? It was an incredibly busy weekend for everyone at the Ocean 98.5 studio. We needed all hands on deck in our final push to sell the rest of the tickets for Robin & AJ’s Citywide 50/50 draw. For the entirety of June we have been setting up at locations all over Victoria, fervidly hawking 5$ tickets to the good folks of this city.

People came in droves to enter for their chance to win a lot of money, and the pot grew and grew, slowly but surely as the days of June were counted down. We began the month with boundless optimism that we would sell out of tickets. At some points we questioned if we would sell enough tickets to make the contest worthwhile. Nevertheless we kept on setting up our tent, setting up our table, and kept on tirelessly tearing tickets for the entrants. Some days we had enticing treats to get people to come on by, including cupcakes from Cupcakes at Uptown, or fun prizes from Hillside Centre. Some entrants bought just one ticket. Some bought many. Some were enthralled at the prospect of winning so much money. Some just wanted an excuse to donate to the Canadian Cancer Society.

We set up at Red Barn Market on Esquimalt Road for the morning and afternoon on Friday, and we saw SO many people come by and grab their tickets. It was a perfect day. The temperature was just right, and we were in the perfect spot to catch people on their way to work and on their lunch break. To make things more interesting, Mandy and I had been issued a challenge by Robin and AJ prior to setting up. Every ticket Mandy sold was a mark for Team Robin, and every ticket I sold was a mark for Team AJ. At the end of the day we would tally all of the marks and see which team sold more. Team Robin was victorious, as several large purchases went through in the middle of the day to help her out. A little friendly competition is a good thing every now and again. Sorry, AJ, we’ll get ’em next time.

Saturday we set up a tent in our back parking lot to sell tickets to anyone downtown who happened to be walking by. Helping us bring people in all day was Lenny, the bulldog. Lenny is a beefy guy who meandered around our tent in the parking lot, drawing folks in with his adorable wrinkled face. It seemed to work, as we also saw a very high number of sales that day.

Sunday the rest of the Ocean team set up at the Sydney Sidewalk Sale market all day to sell tickets, while Kate and I went to Royal Athletic Park for the Harbourcats game. It’s always a bit of a homecoming for me, walking back into Royal Athletic Park, as I worked there as the in-game promotions coordinator for 4 years when I moved back to Victoria. It’s so nice seeing all the familiar faces at the ballpark! The Harbourcats crew is a friendly bunch, who put out an excellent live product, and I was certainly happy to be back and see it from a different perspective. Watching baseball is one of my favourite things to do in the summer anyway, but this particular game happened to be a fireworks night, which was just the cherry on top. It is well known across Victoria that the Harbourcats fireworks shows are FAR better than the ones shown in the inner harbour on Canada Day. It couldn’t have been more true this time. The DJ played Canadian music while the 20+ minute (!) fireworks show was raging on in the outfield. It was truly spectacular. I was just happy I didn’t have to clean up the field after it this time!

It’s going to feel weird not pushing people to spend 5$ on 50/50 tickets anymore. By the time this blog is published we will have found our winner, and the dust on Robin & AJ’s first ever Citywide 50/50 will have begun to settle. Congratulations to the winner, and thank you to everyone who bought tickets over the last month. The Canadian Cancer Society will receive a hefty donation, and that’s really what it’s all about right?

Until next weekend, friends

-Fun Finder Sam

Filed under: Community Cruiser