On behalf of the Opportunity Drawing committee, I would like to congratulate Jones Point on getting the most votes from our Forums members. As a result of the vote, Jones Point will be getting the largest chunk of the money that is collected in this fundraiser.
The potential exists for this fundraiser to be the most successful one we have ever done. For the first time that I am aware of, we are opening up the fundraiser to others outside of the Forums. As you saw from the websites, each of these six lighthouses are in great need of funds to help in their preservation efforts. By opening this fundraiser to others outside of the Forums, we may be able to take in quite a tidy sum to help them, while spreading the word about the Collector Forums to others who don't know we even exist. If this fundraiser reaches the potential and has the success that we as committee members think it can, not only Jones Point will benefit, but, the POSSIBILITY exists that all of these lighthouses MAY be able to be helped in some way. That, I think, is an exciting prospect!
The best part is, not only do these lighthouses win, but we're sure you're going to be thrilled with the prizes that are available as we hit each fund raising goal. I'd like to thank all of our donors in coming up with these exceptional prizes.
All of the info about how the drawing will work and what you have to do to participate is contained at the following link. Good luck, and thank you all in advance for your help in preserving these national treasures!
http://www.thecapecodstore.com/opportunity_drawing/header.html

A great list of prizes!!!
Just so I am clear on the rules though...

Assumption is the highest tier of $$ is raised.

Does the person whose name is drawn first get to:
a) pick their prize from all available,
b) pick their prize from the two prizes that were added when the latest tier was reached,
c) or are prizes awarded randomly
d) none of the above - some other method

Based on the disclosure "*Live drawing will be posted as it happens..." makes me think that winners do not get to pick their prizes, some other method has been determined, might not be random.

Melody,
At the end of the drawing, my plan is to do a "live" drawing here on the Forums. A winner for each prize will be randomly chosen and announced, one at a time, right here. Everyone will be able to view the results as it happens, and comment accordingly as each name is announced as the winner of each particular prize. That way everyone can be a part of the drawing, no matter where you are. We will make an announcement somewhere down the road as to the actual time and date the live drawing will be hold on and in which of these Forums so everyone, member or not, can see the results as it happens.

Melody - As each tier is reached through ticket sales, additional prizes for that tier are added and are garanteed to be given away. Should we reach enough ticket sales to reach the $2000 tier, the Kim and Cedar Point prizes are added and as long as we reach that tier they are also garanteed.

When the actual drawing begins, the first prize given away will be the Sabine Pass and the name drawn for that prize will get it. If your name is drawn for the Sabine Pass, you are automatically out of the drawing for any additional prizes. There will only be one prize per entrant no matter how many tickets you bought. You do not have the choice of any prizes available.

The second name pulled will be for the Sapelo Island piece and their name will be automatically withdrawn from the remaining prizes. And so on and so forth up the line the way the prizes are listed on the official rules page in the order they are listed from the Sabine Pass on up to the highest tier level reached. If we reach the top tier, the last prize to be drawn for will be the OE KIM. The main thing to remember is you are eligible to win only ONE prize no matter how many chances you take.

Roland - Please correct me if I have mistated anything in this post.

I think a little clarity may be needed here.
To begin with, the Sabine Pass is guaranteed to be given away, no matter how much money is raised. When we reach a total of $500.00, raised, the Sapelo and new 2009 release will be added to the guaranteed prize list. So now we have three prizes which will be given away at the drawing's conclusion. When the next tier of $800.00 is reached, the the two prizes at that level get kicked into the guaranteed pot and will given away at the end. In order for the Kim and Cedar Point to be given away, we will have to raise $2,000. for lighthouse preservation. When (or if), the $2000. level is reached, then all of the prizes will have been thrown into the pot as guaranteed to be given away. That way, the more we raise, the more and better prizes that will be available to be won.
Again, the total amount raised will determine how many and which prizes get added to the giveaway pot.

Fully understand that none of the prizes is fully guaranteed except the Sapelo, and the other prizes are added as each donation level is reached.

Sabine Pass is the only guaranteed prize

Rich,
Not sure if that will be the exact order in which the lighthouses will be drawn, but you've pretty much nailed everything else.

Melody - If you go to the website and click on the official rules link and then go down to the list of prizes in red, you will see on the 3rd line down in red that we have Sabine Pass as garanteed to be given away even if we only sell $5.00 worth of tickets. As we reach ticket sales of $500, Sapelo and the TBA 2009 Piece are then garenteed to be given away even if we only sell $505.00 worth of tickets and so on. Do you understand now? Keep asking questions if you don't fully understand.

Very cool prizes! Now I get the #13 clue. VERY COOL!

The clue for Big Bay Point was what do you do where it snows and the answer is "build a Snowman" because there is a snowman on it.

Cool, very cool.

After a little discussion among most of the committee members, this is how the winners will be chosen.
Those of you who have been to an in-store event have probably seen how Bill does a drawing. The first ticket drawn goes under the gold piece, or whichever piece has the most value. The second ticket goes to the next highest value prize, and so on, until all of the prizes have a ticket under them. Once all of the winners have been drawn, the announcement of winners is made starting with the least valuable then on up to the gold piece, which is the last to be announced. That way every one has a chance at the big prize, but noone knows who won it until the very end.
Such is how this drawing will be handled. Whatever tier we are at when the drawing ends, is where we will start. In other words, if the total raised at the close of the drawing on August 15th is $1600., then the last tier hit for guaranteed prizes would be the $1400. tier. The prizes from that tier, the Gray's Harbor and the Whiteware, would be the first to have a winner's name attached to them. We would then go to the next lowest tier, $1100., and attach winner's names to each of those prizes, and so on until all of the prizes has a winner attached. That will happen approximately 1 hour, or so, before the first winner in the drawing is announced.
When the winners are announced, Sabine Pass will be first, followed by the $500. level prizes Sapelo and the new release yet to be announced. The last prizes announced will be the ones on that highest reached tier.
Hope that clarifies that for everyone.

Wow, those are some really nice prizes !!!

Slim chance we were going to guess the prizes with those clues.

Good luck to us all, and for a really nice cause !!!

Here is a little incentive for a few folks to jump in at a higher level of participation... It has been decided that the first 3 people who participate at the $100 level will receive a Wisconsin Point piece in addition to the appropriate number of entries. This applies to the first checks in Roland's hands. If multiples come in within a few days of each other, he will revert to looking at the post marks. Only one WP per household.

Ok, you've seen the prizes and where we have to get to in order for the best ones to be available. In order to get to the top tier, it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of people donating to this cause. That's why I'm appealing to the members of these forums for help in getting the word out.
What can one person do? Here are just a few suggestions....
1) Do you have a Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or YouTube page? Promote this drawing to your friends, contacts, followers, and anyone else who may see your page. Contact other social site members and comment on their pages about the drawing.
2) If you are a member of a lighthouse preservation group, contact the other members in your group and let them know about this drawing. True, none of these six may be the lighthouse you are working on, but how grateful would you be if your lighthouse was part of a fundraising effort and other organizations helped you? No matter how you slice it, it's still lighthouse preservation and we're all in this for the same reason. WE CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE EVEN ONE MORE OF THESE HISTORIC TREASURES!!!!!
3) Contact other lighthouse preservation groups you may know and ask them to spread the word.
4) I will soon be developing posters so that I can post these up in local post offices, banks, supermarkets, and anywhere else that will allow me to. If anyone else is interested in posting these, please e-mail me at roland@thecapecodstore.com. Once they're created, I'll be happy to e-mail the final product to you so that you can print as many of them as you like. (These will especially work in areas where there are other lighthouses or nautical trade, etc.).
5) I am also working on a press release which, if written and submitted correctly, could alert many of the media outlets who may be interested in lighthouses and/or lighthouse preservation.
Anyone else have any ideas? Please post them here. The more we can raise for these lighthouses, especially in these trying economic times, the better they will be able to stem the tide of Mother Nature's (and man's) wrath. Please help us to make this the most successful lighthouse preservation fundraiser that these forums have ever had!
Thank you all for your help.

It's only been 2 days and already one of the most respected lighthouse sites out there has picked up our drawing and is providing a link to it from their home page! I was alerted that Lighthouse Friends has posted this today!
http://www.lighthousefriends.com/

Wow !!! Lighthouse Friends !!!

This fundraiser will be a big success !!!!!

I'm sure they'll be lots more sites picking this up, too. We'll let everyone know as we find out about them.

I've contacted the CG website known as Fred's Place(retired CG CWO same as me)and they will start running our drawing starting in May at the top of the page under "Coasties Links". We'll have top exposure for the entire month of May. This will give us exposure to over 54,000 members and even more visitors.

I saw this morning that one of the agencies I gave our press release to picked it up! It appears on their website here as well as their Dubai website. Here are the links.
http://www.aim168realestate.com/real-est...ks-help-in.html

http://www.aim168realestate.com/real-est...ks-help-in.html

I expect we'll see a couple of media outlets pick this up.
I'll keep submitting to other agencies, as well to see if we can't get more exposure.
The more exposure all of us can give this, the more money we can raise for these lighthouses.
With everyone's help this thing can be BIG!!

Gee, Roland, maybe some of those folks in Dubai would be willing to share some of the wealth!

Sounds like you are off to a great start getting the opportunity drawing publicized.

Here's another site where everyone can help. Please add to the "BUZZ"!
http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:3ddbf5b64d014e271edfb455a634fb6f:c727de1cfaccfb98798ce99b17c42871/Collectors-Group-Seeks-Help-in-Lighthouse-Preservation-Fund-Raiser

My friend Sue Clark, who is the author of the website Lighthouse News, has given the drawing a great write-up! She has even added photos to the story! She's got a large and deicated readership, so this post should bring quite a few visitors to check out the drawing!
http://lighthouse-news.com/2009/04/27/win-a-lighthouse-collectible/

Here's another site that picked up the press release
http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/node/218412/pdf

Thank you to all who have contributed to the Opportunity Drawing so far. As of today, we have raised enough money to reach the first tier and release two more prizes! Now, not only is the Sabine Pass guaranteed to be given away, but another 2009 yet to be announced lighthouse is now guaranteed to be given away, as is the Sapelo Island Front Range Regional piece!
We have raised so far $500.00 for lighthouse preservation. That's a good total, but we need more! Please help us reach our goal so that we can make a significant difference!
If you haven't seen what prizes we have in store yet, just click on the link at the top of each Forums page, or this one....
http://www.thecapecodstore.com/opportunity_drawing/header.html
Wouldn't some of these look great in your collection? And 100% of your donation goes directly to lighthouse preservation! It's a win-win situation and a cause we can all feel great about!

Another site has picked up the Opportunity Drawing press release.
http://www.free-press-release-center.info/pr00000000000000041401.html
We're getting more and more publicity all the time! This can only help awareness for lighthouse preservation and the Forums.

Fred's Place which is a site for retired Coast Guard and others(54,000+ members) has also picked us up under the "Coastie Link". The Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer's site and also the June/July newsletter will also be featuring our Opportunity Drawing Site.

Here's the latest site with a promotion for the Opportunity Drawing.
http://letstalklighthouses.blogspot.com/

Here's a question-

I know that the drawing does not take place by the deadline that the Maine Lighthousing Museum has for raising the needed money to stay open.

However, having said that is there anyway that a portion of the money rised by this drawing be used for that purpose- assuming the Museum is stil open after 7-1-09?

Dennis

Dennis - As a member of the Drawing Committee, I would say no and would also have to vote against the addition of the museum. The lights were selected prior to the closing announcement and it would not be fair to the lighthouses selected to add the museum to the list or to drop one of the lighthouses selected. The addition of the museum after the lights were selected would be the same as adding an additional team to the March Madness after the 65 teams were announced and a schedule was made just because you feel sorry for them.

Should you, or others, want to make a direct donation to the museum that is your choice. If you feel strongly enough about giving to the museum directly and not taking part in the Opportunity Drawing, that is also another option. You should do what you feel is best.
Something else that we were hoping for is to raise in excess of $2000 for preservation, which we still may do. If this were to happen then it might be possible to to give some to the museum as long as the committee agreed to it. Understand, this is just my input and I do not speak for the rest of the committee.

Rich,

I knew it was a longshot- but I figured the worst that could be said was no it can't be done and it was slightly possible something could be done.

Helping the Museum is helping many lighthouses indirectly.

I take exception to your comparison of this effort to March Madness, though. :-)

Dennis

Dennis - I just used the March Madness as an example once the field is chosen(lighthouse selected). There is always a chance that some money could be given, but, we would have to surpass our $2000 goal before it could even be considered, in my opinion. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair to the lights that we selected.

Has anyone considered contacting the Coast Guard and seeing if they would take over the Museum's displays? They might consider it if the displays could be moved to New London, CT at the Academy.

Opportunity drawing update.....
We're more than 1/3 of the way to our goal with just over two months to go. And if anyone is wondering what the "Lighthouse To Be Announced" prize is, it is now posted (and guaranteed to be given away!).
http://www.thecapecodstore.com/opportunity_drawing/header.html

Hey everybody, we now have approximately a month and a half till the end of excepting donations for the Opportunity Drawing. August 15th is the final date for these donations so if you are lurking till the end to send the donations off or are waiting to send in additional donations, please do so now and don't bury Roland at the end with your donations. The worst thing that could happen is your donations aren't received by the August 15th cutoff date and you miss your opportunity to win some fabulous prizes and also help with lighthouse preservation. Enough said on this subject, but, I wanted to bring it to all's attention.

Only $5 from another tier of prizes but a long way from our goal for lighthouse restoration!!

Collector Forums Opportunity Drawing

With the $155 that Terry took in at his signing added to the $795 that we have collected thru our regular donations to the Opportunity Drawing, we now have $950 raised. This puts us in the the $800 garanteed tier of prizes and only $150 away from the $1,100 garanteed prize tier.

We have less then 3 weeks left till we hit the August 15th deadline to receive donations for the drawing. Those of you that are procrastinating better get it in gear and send in your donations. Remember, ALL ON THE DONATIONS received will be given for the lighthouse preservation effort so now is the time to send off your donations before it is too late.