In the absence of the usual Tailgate Party and drawing at Village Bowl, this year’s winners were announced on local cable access TV with the drawing originating at DJ’s Goalpost in the Falls on Monday, September 14, 2020. Seven of the 18 prizes went to Optimist members, though ex-members and a spouse won another three.

Bob Wenzel of the Falls, who captured the $1,000 third prize, donated $500 of it back to the club, which allowed for a profit of $22,900, third best in club history trailing only the record-breaking $23,869.23 of last year and the previous record of $23,803.71 the year before. The last 13 years of the raffle have netted $263,526.75 for the youth of the community!

Second prize of $2,000 went to member Carl Trapp. Brent Morris of the Falls took fourth place worth $750 and Steven Sadowski of Muskego garnered $500 for fifth prize.

Those winning $250 included club members Dick Woosencraft, Dr. Brian Stark, Kathy Ciskoski and Larry Hebbring. Former members Jack Pitroff and Jim Newman also won that amount. The others getting $250 were Jane Galien of Milwaukee, Amy Manion from Fitchburg, Liz Roberts of New Berlin, David Meyer of Germantown and Rebecca Hulce and Tricia Kohl (Rick’s wife) from the Falls. Earning a free entry for next year’s event was club president Todd Paulus.

Many doubts surfaced early on about whether the new format would work, but a great deal effort on the part of numerous people paid off.

At the top of the list would be the team captains – Tim Newman, Jerry Mislang, Donna Bosch, Meg Latus, Terry Fitzsimmons, Chad DeLuka, Herb Gross, Carl Trapp, Del Kreuser, Tom Ciskoski, Larry and Marcia Hebbring, Lenny and Debbie Kimmel, Dan Schwind, Mary Schlumpf and newcomer Shannon Diedrich. Besides captaining, Dan collected all stubs and money and ran the audit as in the past. Marcia and Mary provided invaluable help the night of the drawing in the distribution of prizes. And a special note of thanks needs to go to Deb Kimmel, who kept track of all the tickets that changed hands between different teams and members over the course of two months.

Once again Rog Rogers’ State Farm Insurance and Terry Marcou of Schmidt & Bartelt paid for the printing of the tickets. Barry Landowski’ s Minute Man Press in Germantown covered the cost of printing the flyers. New member Chris Forston coordinated the televising of the drawing. Don Matovich, graciously offered space at DJ’s for the event.

Packer Raffle Chair: Ed Schlumpf

Packer Raffle Co-chairs: Del Kreuser, Dan Schwind, Joe Ludan