2019 Put-in-Bay Reverse Raffle
There was a great crowd at the 2019 Put-in-Bay Reverse Raffle on October 14th in the Put-in-Bay Oktoberfest tent. When the night began, 249 tickets were sold, with the 250th ticket reserved for attendees to buy back in after their number was drawn. That golden ticket was in the hands of Woody Widmar and for a mere $5 you could win your chance back in the drawing. If you remember, last year’s winner was Duff Spatafore who won the ticket from Woody.
Amongst the side raffle prizes were a golf cart, Apple watch, Yeti cooler filled with meat, Miller Boat Line 2020 season pass and many others. You could also purchase bingo tickets and pull-tab cards. The lucky winner of the golf cart was Nick Pettenski from Joe’s Bar. Before the drawing started everyone got to enjoy an amazing low country boil of crab legs, shrimp, clams and corn provided by Kevin Dailey and the Boathouse. Pauline Garsteck prepared her delicious desserts as well. Ray Fogg and Duff Spatafore were once again the emcees for the event, this year as a coach and player duo from Frankfurt University, FU for short. The reverse raffle drawing started with its usual outcome of Boardwalk employees being eliminated early.
We had a very early bingo winner, Corey Williams from Hooligans. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in attendance when they announced
the rules for bingo and he got “Stoibered” for calling a false bingo. Punishment for calling a false bingo is a round of drinks for the entire crowd. More side raffles were chosen with Todd Blumensaadt from the Jet Express winning the 2020 Miller Boat Line pass, the irony was hilarious. Not everyone in the reverse raffle drawing was a loser, every 25 numbers eliminated won their number in dollars. Zach Kowalski was the first person to break even at number 100 eliminated and winning his $100 back. Ray Fogg was number 200 eliminated which left only 50 numbers to be drawn. We had a real bingo this time! It was Marissa Rence from Yellow Tree B&B, and a longtime lady friend of our fake winner Corey Williams. The crowd laughed hysterically at the irony once again. Jill Guseman from Splash and Frank Gegovic from Pasquale’s had their luck come through winning the golden ticket from Woody and guaranteeing a spot in the top 10.
The final 10 contestants included 2 residents from Middle Bass Island and 1 from Port Clinton representing Huntington Bank. Also in the
top 10 was Carlos Madden from Hooligans, who was this years avid “no split” guy. One by one the final 10 were eliminated and Carlos
without hesitation kept his no split stance. It all came down to the last 2 numbers, Carlos and Jon Blasgen from Frosty’s, who was holding the card for Tammy Knaser. The suspense was riveting as Carlos once again demanded no split. The last number was pulled from the hopper and Duff announced to Carlos that he would, in fact, be going home in second place. The winner of the $4,000 grand prize was Tammy Knaser. The look on Carlos’ face was pure disbelief, but at least he wasn’t going home a total loser as a second-place still took home over $700. Overall it was a great night filled with lots of fun as community members got to come together and support their village. We can’t
wait to see how the 2020 reverse raffle with turn out. 2020 dates will be announced in the Island Diary for June.
