After a year’s absence, the KidSport Playhouse raffle is back.
“It’s our biggest fundraising event of the year,” said Martensville KidSport coordinator Angie Reddekopp. “In 2021, the raffle brought in about $16,000 for the local KidSport organization, which includes Martensville, Warman, Osler, Dalmeny, Langham and the RM of Corman Park.”
For the past eight years, a 100-square foot custom-built playhouse that doubles as a storage shed has been raffled off as the grand prize in a fundraising project. KidSport provides funds to needy families in Martensville and Warman to enable them to enroll their children in organized sports. The playhouse raffle has raised thousands of dollars for the charities since it was launched in 2016 by Brian and Bernice Buffin, the owners of the Martensville A&W. The couple’s daughter, Rachelle Buffin, has continued that sponsorship after taking over ownership of the restaurant.
Until 2019, the playhouse was built by students at Martensville High School and Warman High School under the direction of industrial arts teachers. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, MHS students were unable to complete the project. Fortunately, a Martensville carpenter, Marty Goertzen, stepped up to the plate and finished it in the spring of 2021.
The raffle was not held in 2022; but earlier this year, Goertzen once again volunteered to build the playhouse, this time from the ground up.
The playhouse is slated to be unveiled on Thursday, June 1 at the Martensville A&W restaurant parking lot, just in time for the kickoff of this year’s raffle campaign.
Tickets for the playhouse are $5 each, and are available at the Martensville A&W and online at www.warmankidsport.ca .
Ticket sales opened in early May. The draw for the playhouse is slated for September 16 at 3:00 p.m. at the Martensville A&W.
Reddekopp said she’s optimistic this year’s raffle will prove as popular as previous year’s campaigns because the funds are sorely needed.
“We’ve been getting a lot more applications over the past couple of years,” said Reddekopp. “Fortunately, the amount of donations we’re receiving has allowed us to keep up with the demand, and we’ve been able to fully fund all those that have applied.
“In the past, that hasn’t been the case because we didn’t have enough money; so the best we could do was partial funding for applicants.”
Reddekopp said the playhouse raffle provides the major source of funds for the charity. There is also a steady stream of donations that come from groups and individuals that use the Warman OK Tire buses.
“In exchange for the use of the buses, the OK Tire franchise owner, Darwin Davis, encourages people to make donations to KidSport,” said Reddekopp. “It’s very generous of him, and really helps us out.”