By Sue Moore
Beef lovers unite! Buy a raffle chance on a quarter of beef from the Oswalt Family Farms for only $10. This ticket gives the purchaser a better than average chance to win, according to Steve Goss, the Vicksburg Rotary Club’s chairman of the raffle.
Only 500 raffle tickets are sold and there are four winners Goss explained. The raffle goes to benefit Rotary’s Strive program for Vicksburg High School seniors who are mentored by club members to get their grades up and graduate this June.
The Oswalt Family Farms, have donated a black Angus steer from their herd every year since the inception of the Strive program to help raise money as both Gordon and Scott Oswalt are Rotarians. A quarter of beef, fully dressed and packaged is worth in the neighborhood of $265 according to Goss. The Oswalts have raised their cattle with natural feed, no supplements and are well known in the area through their participation at the Vicksburg Farmers’ Market and sales of lamb that they also raise on the farm on XY Avenue in Vicksburg.
The Strive program is chaired by Rotarian Lisa Coe and has seventeen seniors in the program this year. They sign up to participate because they understand that to graduate, they need to concentrate and dedicate themselves to improving their grades and take school seriously. The mentors help to encourage and serve as role models for higher achievement. Prizes are given during the year for increasing grade point averages and at the end of the year, scholarships are meted out to the top achievers in the program to attend KVCC or other institutions they might choose.
Members of the Vicksburg Rotary Club are selling tickets until Friday, February 14 where the winners will be drawn during the Vicksburg Homecoming basketball game between 6-9 p.m. Ticket holders need not be present to win and will also be available at the High School and before the basketball game.