Knights of Columbus Assembly wins St. Stephen - St. Edward school reverse raffle

WARWICK — It was a win-win for charity.
On Saturday evening, Nov. 3, ticket sales to the third annual reverse raffle to benefit St. Stephen - St. Edward school totaled $24,900 and the grand prize was $8.000.
A reverse raffle is one in which you do not want your number to be called because the numbers called are for the ticket holders to be eliminated from the raffle.
Each ticket cost $100 but no more than 249 could be sold and the purchase also included admission to an evening of food and drinks in the school gymnasium along with live musical entertainment performed by singer and composer Kyle Hancharick.
The rules also permitted sharing the cost of the ticket and the winnings from several smaller cash prizes as well as the grand prize.
In an interesting turn of events, Tom Faherty, Faithful Navigator of the Warwick Knights of Columbus Assembly 0776, purchased the grand-prize winning ticket for the Assembly.
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization and charity is its foremost principle.
Fourth-degree members belong to assemblies like Warwick's Assembly 0776, which will use the $8,000 prize to help support local charities. .
In addition to the reverse auction ticket sales, an additional $10,000 was raised from a silent auction and other raffles resulting in net proceeds, after paying out prize money and other expenses, of approximately $23,000.
The proceeds will be used for general school operating expenses.
- Roger Gavan