NORTHERN ONTARIO

Sault Ste. Marie’s Catch the Ace to begin again

Jairus Patterson CTV News Northern Ontario Videojournalist

Published Friday, October 19, 2018 5:05PM EDT

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After the year-long frenzy over the Catch the Ace fundraising game in Sault Ste. Marie, a lot of money was won and a couple of big cheques have now been delivered.

First it was Harold Archibald's turn to receive his Catch the Ace winnings, now it is the two charity’s turn to receive their profits from the fundraiser.

Natasha Collette is the trust fund coordinator for Group Health Centre Trust Fund, one of the recipient charities.

"It was overwhelming, especially having the check in my hand. I don't think I will hold a cheque of that size in my hand again, so it was really overwhelming." said Collette.

Lisa Vezeau Allen is the new executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Sault Ste. Marie, the other recipient charity of the draw earlier this month.

“Insane, like unbelievable. I cannot believe it. I never think, I don't think we will ever see that again, but you don't know." said Vezeau Allen.

The 52-week fundraiser raised $844,000 for both charities. That number shocked the owner of the Esquire Club, Boomer Braido, where the tickets were sold and the draw took place.

“No, no, never in a million years. No way. I've said that a thousand times. No way could it ever get higher than the $40,000 we had last year with Big Brothers." said Braido.

But it did and the charities already know how they will be spending the money.

"We had a two-year plan to raise $285,000 for our surgery campaign, so this is allowing us to finish the campaign earlier than we expected and buy other equipment we didn't think was possible." said Collette.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Sault Ste. Marie run mentorship program between youth and adults within the community.

"So, it means we can really expand our programming. And that's really the key piece. Currently we serve 85, what we call ‘littles’, in the program, but we want to expand that to 500." said Vezeau Allen.

Over the yearlong fundraiser, nearly 800,000 Catch the Ace tickets were sold.

The popular fundraiser will be starting up again on November 4^th, and this time will support four charities, adding two more to the beneficiary list: