The Arcola Optimistic Club held their 28th annual snowmobile rally lottery this year and the winners were announced on Jan. 30.
The club usually holds a large ride with people from all over the southeast but due to COVID restrictions this was unable to happen this year.听
鈥淒ue to restrictions it was not possible to do the rally, so we told people to go out on a ride on their own and send us notes and pictures. There was no way to get around handling a large volume of people. It was not possible to do this safely, we did not want to put the southeast in any sort of danger,鈥� said Blake Brownridge, president of the club.
On the day of the draw, six to eight members got together at the Royal Canadian Legion hall, placed all the tickets in the draw drum and drew for the prizes. There were 502 riders registered for the prizes and there was just over 11,000 dollars in prizes this year. The draw was live streamed on the group鈥檚 Facebook page.
The first-place winner was Jordan Beriault from Alida, he chose the sled out of the three options available for him to pick from. The other two were a quad and a street bike. Second place winner of $1,000 was Gary Cross from Regina and the third-place winner which was also $1,000, was Piper Bourhis from Kennedy.
Though the group was disappointed they could not hold their ride this year, they had many people contact them with their understanding as to why the ride could not be held.
鈥淲e did not expect the response, it was amazing how many people called us with encouraging words and telling us that they understand why we could not hold this ride this year,鈥� Brownridge explains.
Congratulations to all the winners.
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