GREENFIELD — The fifth annual Steak’n Bake’n Raffle hosted by the Greenfield Rotary Club raised more than $30,000 in donations, exceeding the fundraising goal of the event.
Greenfield Rotary Club members hoped to raise $25,000 — topping last year’s $22,500 — through this year’s Steak’n Bake’n Raffle, which included a steak dinner, drinks, musical entertainment, a $2,000 reverse raffle, photo booth and games, said event chairman Dave Anders.
Ten nonprofit organizations were represented at Sunday’s charity event; the top five (which receive additional grants from Rotary) were selected by guests through a penny-wars-type contest throughout the evening to receive the top grant awards.
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The top five organizations selected by the sold-out crowd were the Hancock Hope House, Hancock County Senior Services, the Hancock County Food Pantry, Hancock County Veterans Park and The Landing. Rotary plans to disburse operating grants of $5,000 each to the organizations, Anders said. All of the organizations represented at the event got to keep all of their people’s choice contest donations as well.
The 80 Rotarians who worked the event were gratified to see people having fun at the charitable event, Anders said.
The aim of the event is threefold — to bring friends together, to help the community and to have fun, he said.
“It was awesome,” said Rotarian Monica Price-Kowalski, who served as photographer for the event. “We had an incredible turnout, and the numbers far exceeded anything we ever hoped for.”
The annual event at the Hancock County 4-H Fairgrounds serves as a way for Rotarians to highlight their local efforts, such as donating their time and money to local projects.
While many local nonprofit organizations might not have enough staff or volunteers to undertake major fundraising efforts, Rotary members lending their manpower during the Steak’n Bake’n Raffle did just that for the 10 organizations selected to benefit from the event, Anders said.
He believes letting the crowd choose the five organizations to receive the top grants is a winning formula for the event, he said. Last year, this people’s choice contest brought in $5,000; this year, the friendly competition raised that total to $30,000.
“This proved to be just amazing,” Anders said. “(Nonprofits) were working the phones, saying, ‘Make a donation, because it gives us a chance for a Rotary grant.’ We basically got six times the number of donations we thought we would get … and people had fun.”
In addition to the people’s choice award fundraising, there were 50/50 drawings every hour, a photo booth, a game featuring $2,000 in gift cards and wine prizes, and a “toss back in,” a bags game that gave players the chance to get back into the reverse raffle, Price-Kowalski said.
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Ten local nonprofit organizations were represented at this year’s event, with attendees voting with their dollars for the Top 5, which received additional $5,000 grants.
- Families United for Support and Encouragement, which provides information, resources and support to Indiana families raising children with disabilities
- Greenfield Central School Foundation, which provides financial support and programming to Greenfield-Central Schools Corp.
- *Hancock Hope House, the county’s sole homeless shelter
- *Hancock County Senior Services, which provides assistance, transportation and social events to the growing senior population
- *Hancock County Food Pantry, a 4,000-square-foot facility that feeds more than 600 Hancock County families a month
- Hancock County Special Olympics, whose mission is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities
- *Hancock County Veterans Park, a downtown Greenfield location honoring the county’s military legacy
- *The Landing, a safe place for at-risk teens age 13 to 18 to speak confidentially about their challenges and concerns
- Love In the Name of Christ of Greater Hancock County, which mobilizes church members to create and maintain programming helping others in the county
- Greenfield Veterans Honor Guard, which sets up and maintains flags near Park Cemetery on Memorial Day, performs military honors and flag ceremonies at funerals and other events.
*Denotes Top 5
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