A disguised Sam Somerville holds up the keys to a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T he donated for the Raise the Roof Raffle in Eatonia as he exits the car on Jan. 12 at the Eatonia Memorial Arena minutes before names were drawn to determine the raffle winners. A resident of Prince Albert won the car.
Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads
A real storybook tale has played out for a Prince Albert man who won the classic car of his dreams after his name was drawn in the Raise the Roof Raffle.
The draw for the Raise the Roof Raffle took place on Jan. 12 at the Eatonia Memorial Arena during the community’s Minor Hockey Day. The raffle was a fundraiser for projects to fix the roof above the arena’s lobby and to build a new room for the ice resurfacing machine.
Both of the projects have been completed. The prizes in the raffle were a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T appraised at $67,700 and a 5,000-bushel grain bin and hopper bottom valued at $17,385. The raffle also included a 50/50 draw.
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Sam Somerville, an Eatonia businessman and senior hockey coach, donated the car for the raffle. The 1968 Charger was the car Somerville had always dreamed of owning, but he decided to donate the car because the arena needed repairs and he wants the facility to be there for future generations of skaters.
The Charger was once in a museum in Missouri, but it was acquired by a resident of Medicine Hat. Somerville purchased the car in 2017. The grain bin was donated by Kelly Dearborn of 4 Hire Welding and the hopper was donated by Jeremy Hartsook of HES Manufacturing.
Mayor Troy Becker of Eatonia had the honour of drawing the winners’ names. The first draw was for the 50/50 prize and the winner took home more than $15,500. Steven Somerville, who is Sam’s son, won the 50/50 draw.
The next draw was for the grain bin and hopper bottom, and the winner was Lorne Fiddler of Burstall.
The lucky winner of the Dodge Charger was Sheldon Mitchell of Prince Albert and he learned about his good fortune in a phone call made after his name was drawn.
On Sunday, the car’s donor said it was a day of mixed emotions for him. Sam drove the car onto the ice before the draw, and he had dressed up to make it look as if he stepped straight out of the 1970s. He was wearing a shoulder length wig to give him the extra flow he needed to look the part.
“I was getting a little fun out of it,” he said about getting dressed up. “I had the hair on, and I had my brother’s jersey that he wore back in the ’70s and the ’80s when he played for the senior men’s hockey team.”
Sam said the whole raffle was a learning experience for him, but the result exceeded his expectations and he is pleased with how it all worked out. He noted that it was a busy day for raffle organizers because they spent most of the day counting tickets to satisfy the requirements for the licensing.
Mitchell, who works at the penitentiary in Prince Albert, spoke in an interview on Monday. To say he was excited to win the car is a big understatement. He said his all-time favourite television series is The Dukes of Hazzard and the General Lee, a 1969 Dodge Charger, is his favourite car.
He noted that he has promised the car’s previous owner that he would not turn the car into the General Lee, but he owns a horn that makes the same sound as the General Lee and he does plan to install it in the car.
Mitchell also owns two dogs and their names are Charger and Rosco, the second named after the character Rosco P. Coltrane from the series. He said he found out about the raffle from an advertisement on Facebook. He sent a link for the ad to himself in an email.
The self-proclaimed “Dodge guy” said he did some research to determine the legitimacy of the raffle and once he was satisfied it was real, he went online to buy his tickets. The online option did not work for him, so he phoned a contact number and worked out the details to buy tickets. He bought the tickets on Christmas Eve.
He noted that he told his wife he has wasted $100 on worse things, so he bought six tickets and it worked out for him. Mitchell said he had a dream that he won the car and he even had trouble sleeping the night before the draw.
Mitchell said he was with his youngest daughter, 14, when he got the call and she told him he sounded like a “little school girl” due to the excitement in his voice. The first call he made after he won was to his father, but he did not tell anyone about the news until after he saw his name on Facebook.
The winner said he suspected one of his co-workers was playing a practical joke on him because he knew how much he wanted to win the car. Mitchell’s excitement is through the roof and when asked about getting behind the wheel for the first time, he said, “I can’t wait.”
Becker, the mayor, also has a long history of involvement with the Eatonia Huskies senior hockey club. He said it was an honour for him to draw the names, and he thanked the committee for all of its work to help make the raffle a success.
He said there is no telling how long the arena would have lasted if the roof repairs were not made. Eatonia only has one minor hockey team playing out of the arena full time this year with the senior team on a break, so the repairs were made with the future in mind, Becker said. Still, he added it was great to see a bustling arena last Saturday.
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